Letter: Letters : Time for a change

From Mike Glazer, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford

Oxford

I work in the field of crystallography. By the end of this summer my group
will have run down to just one or two research students because I have been
unable to attract funds for my subject. This has little to do with science
quality—it’s more to do with the organisation of the British research
councils.

Crystallography crosses the boundaries between five colleges of the
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, but is not mainstream in
any. The result is that no matter how strong my application for funds, it is
never in a core subject in any of the colleges, and so is unlikely to be
strongly supported by sufficient members of the prioritisation panels.

I have no doubt that there are many other researchers who, like me, are
facing scientific extinction principally because of the internal organisation of
the funding bodies.

Research funding has been traditionally handled by applying for funds in
advance of the work. Originally this worked reasonably well because a well-made
proposal usually resulted in the grant being awarded. But in the last couple of
years or so, with tighter budgets and more top-down direction by government and
its officials, this is no longer true. Today’s scientists have to submit a
constant stream of applications in the hope that at least one of them will be
successful. So, when is there time for science?

I propose that the bulk of the British science budget be divided between all
the various departments, based on existing quality criteria and past research
income. The research councils’ job would then be to monitor performance so that,
say, every four years, decisions on further funding would be based on the
success of the department’s research activity. The emphasis then will be on
results rather than on the silly idea that good science can be predicted.

This scheme would, at a stroke, cut administration costs and, more
importantly, free researchers from the current “proposal” rat race and enable
them to concentrate on science, so encouraging more speculative and
unpredictable research.

It would be nice to think that the new government might be persuaded to
institute a radical change in the way we manage the science budget.