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Asked by 08jclarke to Ailsa, Evan, James, Kath, Ryan on 22 Jun 2011.
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Ryan Ladd answered on 18 Jun 2011:
The biggest thing I think needs improving is getting people to invest more money into science. There are so many people who can’t get involved in science and so much research that doesn’t get done because there’s not enough money.
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Evan Keane answered on 21 Jun 2011:
Well that would require money ….
then I’d hire loads more people to work in my area. Oh ya, and we could build the Square Kilometre Array Telescope perhaps quicker or larger! Check it out: http://www.skatelescope.org/media-outreach/videos/
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Ailsa Powell answered on 22 Jun 2011:
As the others have said money is the key and a bit of reorganisation. One of the things my area of science suffers from (and I presume this is the same for the other guys) is that the research contracts only last for three years. This means you can only realistically do research that will yield results in three years or you damage your chance of getting more funding by not having results. You don’t get a chance to work on the more challenging problems that will take longer, you risk your career if you do.
So if there was more money I think permanent research positions should be created. That way we could all do a lot more research without worrying about the next job contract and labs don’t lose expertise when someone has to leave because their work didn’t get funded.
Three years may seem a long time but in terms of getting research done it’s tiny and it’s getting harder and harder to get funding in biological science. There is about a 5-10% chance of being successful in getting funding at the moment, so some of the more interesting high risk projects cannot be worked on 🙁
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