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A lifeline for Greek science—or living on borrowed time?

A lifeline for Greek science—or living on borrowed time?

The Greek government is trying to stop the nationwide brain drain stemming from global financial crisis. This week, the parliament was expected to take up legislation to create the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI), modeled after the German Research Foundation and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Matthias Egger is the new president of the SNSF

Matthias Egger is the new president of the SNSF

Matthias Egger, internationally renowned epidemiologist and public health expert, will be the new president of the National Research Council of the SNSF as of 2017.

An efficient system to fund science

An efficient system to fund science

This paper presents a novel model of science funding that exploits the wisdom of the scientific crowd. Each researcher receives an equal, unconditional part of all available science funding on a yearly basis, but is required to individually donate to other scientists a given fraction of all they receive. Science funding thus moves from one scientist to the next in such a way that scientists who receive many donations must also redistribute the most. As the funding circulates through the scientific community it is mathematically expected to converge on a funding distribution favored by the entire scientific community. This is achieved without any proposal submissions or reviews.

Congress faces a lengthy science to-do list

Congress faces a lengthy science to-do list

Congress returns in early September from a 7-week summer break with a lengthy list of unfinished business, some of great interest to the U.S. research community—and just a few weeks to tackle it.

Science Editor-in-Chief Highlights Need for Steady Science Funding

Science Editor-in-Chief Highlights Need for Steady Science Funding

In an editorial in the 26 August issue of the journal Science, Jeremy Berg, the journal's 20th editor-in-chief, examines the importance of funding science steadily, with predictable budget cycles that allow science-funding agencies to do long-term planning that research projects typically require.

The Unpredictable Art of Science — and a Tentative Manifesto to Foster It

The Unpredictable Art of Science — and a Tentative Manifesto to Foster It

If we continue on the current path of adding ever tighter controls and conformities to research without understanding their effects on the impact and quality of that research, then we will likely be wasting money.

NSF tries two-step review, drawing praise—and darts

NSF tries two-step review, drawing praise—and darts

Thousands of conservation and environmental biologists must now survive two rounds of peer review before getting funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). NSF says that the two-stage review process, which it launched 4 years ago as a pilot project in two divisions within its biology directorate, has resulted in a more manageable workload and fuller consideration of the highest-quality proposals.

Qualitative Evaluation of completed projects funded by the ERC

Qualitative Evaluation of completed projects funded by the ERC

Evaluation by the European Research Council (ERC) which serves as a pilot exercise for the future evaluation of ERC‐funded projects.

Meet Europe's new science advice brigade

Meet Europe's new science advice brigade

The group is composed of: Cédric Villani, Elvira Fortunato, Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Moedas, Henrik Wegener, Pearl Dykstra, Janusz Bujnicki, and Julia Slingo.

Agencies must show that basic research is worth the investment

Agencies must show that basic research is worth the investment

The European Research Council has begun to evaluate the impact of its grants; others should do the same.

Trump vs Clinton: worlds apart on science

Trump vs Clinton: worlds apart on science

Presidential candidates begin to make clear their stark differences on climate change, energy production and stem-cell research.

Policy Implications of Aging in the NIH-Funded Workforce

Policy Implications of Aging in the NIH-Funded Workforce

Aging of the NIH-funded independent investigator workforce is an accumulation of multiple factors including a shift in perceptions, expectations, and the general structure of the extramural workforce, as well as global macroeconomic factors.

First Greek science agency is rare source of joy for beleaguered researchers

First Greek science agency is rare source of joy for beleaguered researchers

European Investment Bank provides surprise loan to halt startling brain drain.

Joe Biden: Agencies don't report clinical trials should lose funds

Joe Biden: Agencies don't report clinical trials should lose funds

At a national cancer summit, Vice President Biden threatened to cut funds to medical research institutions that don't report their clinical trial results.