The Future of Research

Careers in Research and Innovation are too important to be left to the behest of a publication system that is failing and the politics of research funding systems that are whimsical.

Let me start with a very simple question: what is the difference between a teacher and a researcher? This is not a trick question. In the most simple terms, the job of a teacher is to take knowledge that we already have and pass it on to the next generation. This is considered such an important job, that in most countries, teachers get a job for life. We, as diverse human societies, have come to understand that educating our children is so important that:
a) every child is required by law to attend school, and
b) we give teachers secure jobs so that they can get on with their — admittedly not easy — jobs of teaching children.

The job of a researcher — again in the most simple of terms — is to acquire new knowledge. The fields of research are vast, truly barely imaginably so, and span all areas of our inquisitive endeavour: natural sciences, maths, economics, humanities, engineering, medical sciences — to name a few. And — again, admittedly — we do invest substantial resources in pursuing and acquiring this new knowledge. According to latest estimates, there are around:

• 90,000 Universities and Academic Research Institutes
• 10,000 – 15,000 Government Research Institutes
• 20,000 – 30,000 Private Sector Research Institutes
• 5,000 NGO/International Research Institutes

Totalling around 125,000 to 140,000 research institutes worldwide. They each have buildings and instruments and all additional necessary infrastructure. Just as our education system does. We need school buildings and teaching supplies and canteens and sports facilities etc. We know how to do that. We have done that. Cool.

The one thing we haven’t done is to give the people doing the jobs as researchers the same job security as teachers. Why not? We need research in exactly the same way as we need education. In one job, you find new knowledge; in another job, you pass it on. Simple. Both jobs are essential. Different, of course, but equally important. As societies, we absolutely and 100% need both. There is no difference in their importance.

Our current approach — to put researchers on short-term contracts, tie their research output to their job security, their tenure status to their (highly subjective and politically influenced) publication record — is insane. Not just bad, or unfair, or questionable — simply insane. Wrong, short-sighted, complacent, inefficient, demeaning and totally wasteful.

In 1763 the then King of Prussia, Friedrich II, or Frederick the Great, issued the General School Regulation that paved the way for legislation to make it compulsory for all children to attend school. It took another century for a majority of teachers to become state employees in Germany. In our time, we do not need to wait another century to put research on the same solid foundation as we have put education on.