Budget cuts: funding needed for startling new discoveries too

摘要

UK research-funding bodies have reacted to paucity in their budgets with plans to focus on supporting just a handful of scientists (see, for example, Nature 465,16-17; 2010); translational research; or research in areas of monetary importance, such as ageing. However, these strategies leave little room for surprising and groundbreaking discoveries. Risk-averse funding panels hugely favour hypothesis-driven research because it is clear how results will be obtained and the issues resolved. Here, discovery is generally made after a specific search, such as for a test to indicate whether a particular protein is involved in a process. This is the right approach for uncovering the details behind a phenomenon that is already described.