https://example.com/tags/vannevar-bush/ Recent content in Vannevar Bush on James Colliander Hugo -- gohugo.io en © Copyright 2020 Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://example.com/post/2012-04-13-business-earmarks-or-merit-competition-which-is-the-better-federal-research-strategy/ Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://example.com/post/2012-04-13-business-earmarks-or-merit-competition-which-is-the-better-federal-research-strategy/ Investments by governments to support research and development are crucial to economic prosperity, job creation, scientific advancement, and improvements to the future to be inherited by children. How should these investments be selected? Merit review is a competitive process leveraging the expertise of a specially qualified panel to direct investments in research and development. Earmarks are appropriations given to specific recipients or targeted areas, without competition, to satisfy the intent of government. https://example.com/post/2012-04-12-misaligned-incentives-in-canadian-science-policy/ Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://example.com/post/2012-04-12-misaligned-incentives-in-canadian-science-policy/ Budget 2012 continues to shift Canadian federal investment away from basic research toward industrial applied research. This shift is politically expedient: the redirection of funds can be discussed with tantalizing justifications based on job creation, targeted investment, streamlining discovery, and so forth. The shift resonates with a public concerned about frivolous expenditures of dollars collected through taxation. The late Senator from Wisconsin, William Proxmire, advanced this line of political rhetoric by issuing Golden Fleece Awards for science projects he lampooned as unworthy of government investment.