[acdha]

> Shouldn’t we be asking a similar question? Which research projects are going to deliver insight and value for the public?

Yes, we’ve always done that - and quite extensively. I would recommend learning more about this process: it’s run by people who care deeply about scientific progress - nobody gets into it for the low pay - and if there seems to be a simple improvement, the odds are high that someone made it in the previous century.

I have a number of friends and family members who are academics and they spend a lot of time on each grant explaining how their research will advance our scientific understanding and linking it to other benefits (e.g. low-level neuroscience isn’t going to lead to new medical treatments directly but it provides the foundational knowledge which those treatments are based on).

Echoing the peer comment, if you were to pick any flaw it’s that we probably spend too much money on betting relative to the savings. There’s a lot of good research which doesn’t get funded, so it’s not hard to fill your budget every year with qualified proposals.

[grandempire]

All of that can be true, and yet there are simultaneously so many papers and projects that are not worthwhile being funded. How does our university system exist in the current set? Where is the money coming from?

> they spend a lot of time on each grant explaining how their research will advance our scientific understanding and linking it to other benefits

Do those come true? Or is this just an exercise in diligence.

> I would recommend learning more about this process

You’re right. I should learn more. I really want to understand.