Funding research for economic return sounds good – but that’s not how science really works
- Written by Nicola Gaston, Co-Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Getty ImagesThe announcement by Science Minister Judith Collins this week that half of New Zealand’s sole fund for fundamental science will now go to research with economic benefits – with social sciences and the humanities no longer supported – came as a shock to many.
Perhaps it shouldn’t have. The signs have been there...
