Setting the agenda: ‘To whom are we answering’?

Until a few years ago it was still common, at least among academic scientists, for one to hear the viewpoint expressed that ‘Science is essentially unpredictable and hence unplannable. The best thing to do therefore would be to give the scientist as much money as he wants to do what research he wants. Some of it would be bound to pay off, intellectually or economically or with luck both.’ One might be forgiven for thinking that this quote comes from recent debates about open science or about directing publicly funded research on grand societal challenges. These lines are, however, from a book published in 1969 entitled Science and Society by Hilary Rose and Steven Rose. The authors point out that free research has traditionally been the perquisite of only a few, but for most academic scientists it has been at best an inspirational myth. For that minority, however, it is the rhetoric they use to protect their vested interests in the debate on how to decide what and whose research should be funded. This is a debate that remains controversial due to the intense and cut-throat competition for funding, while society realizes that science must be more responsible.