Not good news for 🧪 science in the UK. Having economic return as a focus for science funding in the UK rather than a consequence is a good way to guarantee that we miss the real innovations, where the huge economic benefits of “useless” research aren’t a priori apparent. - ThreadSky

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astromikemerri.bsky.social • 6 days ago

Not good news for 🧪 science in the UK. Having economic return as a focus for science funding in the UK rather than a consequence is a good way to guarantee that we miss the real innovations, where the huge economic benefits of “useless” research aren’t a priori apparent.

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astromikemerri.bsky.social•6 days ago

Not to mention, if you really must be focused on the utilitarian benefit to the economy rather than cultural enrichment, entirely missing the economic returns from embedding curiosity about the way the universe works across the whole of society.

michaeltremmel.bsky.social•6 days ago

Such a frustrating and flawed ideology… Ireland is in very much the same camp, sadly, but I have hope for some positive change, rather than the backward motion the UK seems set on.

To some extent I feel scientists brought this on ourselves by cozying to capitalists while they seemed to like us

michaeltremmel.bsky.social•6 days ago

The problem is they never understood why we do science. Now they think the benefits are the motivation which is such a destructive idea. But so many (me included) were happy to throw our humanities colleagues under the bus and not acknowledge that we are closer to them than we are to engineering.

astromikemerri.bsky.social•6 days ago

It’s a tough one — I tend toward the pragmatic argument that the reason to fund blue-skies research should be entirely cultural, but that it happens to be culture that pays for itself many times over through the unpredictable economic returns.

astromikemerri.bsky.social•6 days ago

My personal battle against the wedge driven between pure science and the humanities is the way that “culture” has been hijacked for the latter!

marycorcoran.bsky.social•6 days ago

Also, humanities & social sciences further marginalised.

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