US: Call to fund the young and risky

08 June 2008

A coalition of researchers has strongly urged a greater commitment among policymakers, universities and private donors to support scientists early in their careers and encourage potentially "high risk, high reward" ventures, reports Inside Higher Ed. A series of recommendations that would alter longstanding federal funding and peer review mechanisms was published in a white paper released by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The recommendations are mindful that stagnating funding tends to favour 'conservative', incremental projects that entail lower risk and lower potential rewards. Instead of spending their time as "serial grant writers", said Keith R Yamamoto, the executive vice dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, young scientists are eager - and should be encouraged - to work on bold new ideas.

They "want to do research that's not paradigm-extending but paradigm-breaking," he said at a panel announcing the report, ARISE: Advancing research in science and engineering.
Full report on the Inside Higher Ed site
ARISE report on the American Academy of Arts and Sciences site

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