Is this applied or basic science? Theres a growing perception, at least from some quarters, that the SFI focus now is almost entirely on applied science. The best route to scientific success now would, I suggest, be to hire a PR company and somehow persuade the funders that this was worthy of prioritization. Its government is chasing winners….good luck there
The overwhelming desire of government seems to be to somehow stumble across a new <insert techy MNC here> and get loads of jobs.
Aint. gonna. happen.
Meanwhile here is the list of funded projects for this year. To my mildly scientific eye they all seem quite applied. Although the word novel appears a lot in the titles of the project this comes in almost each case in conjunction with therapeutic or applied. There seems to me to be little of what one might call basic science
A further point – If someone is given 200k of taxpayers money to do something, I would have hoped that the funder would require a short paragraph in laymans terms outlining what the project is and why it is good science. Transparency is always a good idea.
A paragraph describing the aims (and benefits to Irish society) of the project in layman’s terms is required on all SFI grant applications. Obviously these should be released for the successful projects – hopefully SFI will do this soon.