‘National interest’ funding tests ‘bad for science’

A person using calculator

Governments risk harming their own interests and holding back scientific progress by attempting to align research funding allocations too tightly to their domestic agendas, a conference heard.

Speakers at Times Higher Education’s Research Excellence Summit: Asia Pacific, held at the University of New South Wales, debated whether global research goals were compatible with local priorities in the wake of the Australian government’s introduction of a “national interest” test for publicly funded research. READ MORE