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Importance of Fundamental Research

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Aims & Objectives

In many countries, research funding structures appear to be increasingly supporting applied science with direct links to industry at the expense of fundamental science. Motivated by concern about these changes, the ‘Importance of Fundamental Research’ Working Group aims to quantify these changes and to develop a toolkit for the public, stakeholders, and policy makers that clearly articulates what fundamental research contributes to society and why it should be supported.

In the past decade, as national and international financial resources have declined, there has been a global trend toward supporting applied science with direct links to industry. These trends have a direct impact on young researchers who refrain from choosing fundamental science as their main occupation in order to increase their chances to develop a scientific career and obtain seed funding. Naturally, the impacts of these trends are of a global nature and addressing them may shape the future of our scientific world.

This GYA working group is seeking concrete statistics on fundamental vs. applied research funding from a suite of countries, and aims to demonstrate the importance of fundamental research through empirical evidence and compelling arguments.

Contact

Contact Details

Syed Abbas (Group Co-Lead)
Email:
Anna-Maria Gramatté (Senior Project Officer)
Email:

Partners & external contributors

Meagan Dodd (Research Assistant) & Kristina Tietjen (Research Assistant)
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Activity Status

This activity is currently active.

Membership of GYA activities is reserved to current or former GYA members only, so please log in  to view further information and options.

As a non-member, you can sign up for the monthly GYA newsletter by using the newsletter sign-up form at the very bottom of this page.

Types of group membership

Active members – Active group members are current GYA members proactively participating in the group’s overall work and progress, by contributing to discussions or (text) outputs, or organising and running workshops and other (online) meetings.

Followers – Followers of a group are subscribers to the mailing list, but are not expected to actively contribute. Followers may be current members or alumni of the GYA.

Past Members – Past members are GYA members and alumni who have previously been active in the group. They are no longer included in group communications/mailing lists.

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Further information

Other sources

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Progress

For GYA members and alumni only: connect to the group, collaborate and discuss with other members on the GYA-internal Agora platform here.

++++++++++++++++

In 2022/23, group members will contribute to the GYA’s activities for the 2022 International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD); they will also further communicate about the group’s 2022 Back to Basics report.

Outcomes

2022

After publications of its case study report on fundamental research funding in Canada in 2017, the group published its final policy-focused paper “Back to basics: researchers’ perception on the global state of funding for fundamental research” in October. The paper reports the outcomes of a survey of researchers from around the world on the state of our research system, specifically around funding for fundamental, use-inspired and applied science.

You can find a recording and a short summary of the report launch event here.

2017

The group published a report on “Restoring Canada’s Competitiveness in Fundamental Research: The View from the Bench” in June 2017. The report by GYA members Julia Baum (Canada) and Jeremy Kerr (Canada) and supported by WG discussions and contributions reveals that Canada’s support for fundamental research crumbled over the past decade, due to the previous government’s disregard for fundamental research. As a result, many accomplished researchers in Canada are now left completely unfunded and Canada’s future as global leader for innovation and discovery is at stake. Dismantling support for fundamental research has changed the very nature of how science is conducted in Canada and had a profound impact on the Canadian research community. Strikingly – and primarily in response to the loss of fundamental research funding – the proportion of researchers who reported that they only conduct fundamental research collapsed from 24% for 2006-2010 to <2% for 2011-2015. The accumulated funding gap for fundamental research in Canada had reached $535 million by 2015. Canada’s new Liberal government began to address this deficit with the 2016 federal budget, adding $76 million to the three granting councils. The report’s authors suggest that investment of $459 million – the outstanding funding gap – for fundamental research is needed. This report received widespread attention, including media reports in Nature and Science.

The group has conducted a global survey on perceptions of research funding and collected responses from almost 3000 researchers, with 10% from developing countries. This provides, for the first time, an opportunity to hear the voices of researchers from developing countries on this issue and to compare the patterns in data between countries with different income levels. Julia Baum (now a GYA alumna) and Anina Rich (Australia) are leading a write up of a brief policy-focused paper on these data.

 

Report
Infographic Fundamental Research
Infographic Canada
Press Release

    Summary
    Activity Status: Ongoing
    GYA Activity type: Working Groups
    Established in N/A
    Leads & Contact
    • Syed Abbas
      Co-Lead / GYA Member
    • Anna-Maria Gramatté
      Office Contact / GYA Office

    Members

    • Michael Backes
      GYA Member
    • Sophie Carenco
      GYA Member
    • Éva Dékány
      GYA Member
    • Carina Geldhauser
      GYA Member
    • Ali Jahanshahi
      GYA Member
    • Sandeep Kaur
      GYA Member
    • Fatemeh Mohammadipanah
      GYA Member
    • Sabrina Wurzba
      GYA Member
    • André Xuereb
      GYA Member
    • Bilge Demirkoz
      GYA Alumni
    • Lahcen El Youssfi
      GYA Alumni
    • Vinicius Fortes Farjalla
      GYA Alumni
    • Boon Han Lim
      GYA Alumni
    • Stefan Hild
      GYA Alumni
    • Shabana Khan
      GYA Alumni
    • Rawiwan Laocharoensuk
      GYA Alumni
    • Pedro Martínez-Santos
      GYA Alumni
    • Alice Ngaatendwe Prisca Matimba
      GYA Alumni
    • Rothsophal Nguon
      GYA Alumni
    • Anina Rich
      GYA Alumni
    • Koen Vermeir
      GYA Alumni

    Followers

    • Jovana Milić
      GYA Member
    • Arya Shalini Subash
      GYA Member
    • Stella Tsani
      GYA Member
    • Martin Dominik
      GYA Alumni
    • Roberta D’Alessandro
      GYA Alumni
    • Oded Hod
      GYA Alumni
    • Binyam Sisay Mendisu
      GYA Alumni

    Past Members

    • Dipak Pinjari
      GYA Member
    • Christian Agyare
      GYA Alumni
    • Matías Arim
      GYA Alumni
    • Nagadenahalli B. Siddappa
      GYA Alumni
    • Ghada Bassioni
      GYA Alumni
    • Julia Baum
      GYA Alumni
    • Kai Chan
      GYA Alumni
    • Nico Dissmeyer
      GYA Alumni
    • Martin Dominik
      GYA Alumni
    • Martin Dominik
      GYA Alumni
    • Mary Donnabelle Balela
      GYA Alumni
    • Roberta D’Alessandro
      GYA Alumni
    • Mohamed Gouighri
      GYA Alumni
    • Oded Hod
      GYA Alumni
    • Abidemi James Akindele
      GYA Alumni
    • Jeremy Kerr
      GYA Alumni
    • Andrey Konevega
      GYA Alumni
    • Verena Lepper
      GYA Alumni
    • Milica Pešić
      GYA Alumni
    • Mitsunobu R. Kano
      GYA Alumni
    • Alessandro Sale
      GYA Alumni
    • James Tickner
      GYA Alumni
    • Philip Walther
      GYA Alumni
    • Borys Wróbel
      GYA Alumni
    • Gijs Wuite
      GYA Alumni
    • Jie Xu
      GYA Alumni
    • Jenny Yang
      GYA Alumni
    • Cheng Zhiming
      GYA Alumni
    • Maarten van Herpen
      GYA Alumni
    Related News
    15 November 2022
    Back to Basics: GYA fundamental research report now available
    28 May 2020
    GYA contributes to three new G-Science Academies statements
    28 June 2017
    Fundamental research: the foundation of innovation
    Related Events
    Report launch: “Back to basics: researchers’ perception on the global state of funding for fundamental research”
    Related Publications
    Published in September 2022
    Back to basics

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