Prioritization in science - current view

Abstract

Basic science has done a lot for increasing welfare and future potential through subsequent technological innovations. Science is mainly done in academia and is highly influenced by funding sources (such as government funding, venture capital, and philanthropy), and its own cultural norms. In this post, I sketch some of my current views on how we can improve prioritization among scientific projects to align better with societal goals. This is more of a dump that’s supposed to help me to articulate a bit more clearly how I currently think about prioritization in science, which is not original and inspired by literature such as this and some personal experience. I plan to continue to engage with this topic more in the future and write clearer, literature-supported, and better-argumented posts about scientific prioritization.