John Gillaspy @NSF: We use the textbook test. If your research is wildly successful, will it be in textbooks 20 years from now? #aqsw2019pic.twitter.com/Vj7xFhhfsz
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In 2006 I wrote a list of my 10 favourite papers in quantum information. I then looked for patterns in them, just for fun. The two patterns that stood out: _none_ was funded by a project-based grant; and none of the principal authors except Feynman was a prof at a research U.
This utterly shocked me. At the time I was a prof at a research U with multiple project-based grants. Reflecting on this was a big part of why I left the field and academia. I think the approach taken by NSF and other agencies leads to minor, incremental work.
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(There are exceptions, e.g., they deserve a world of credit for LIGO. But in general I think their practices need to be redesigned from scratch.)
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Can you think of any solutions on a short-term, individual level?
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Yes. I gave up tenure, left academia, worked on what I thought was important, and tried hard on an ad hoc basis to get funded while not compromising on working on what I think is important. Which I realize sounds self-righteous, but there have been costs to it.
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Interesting. Did you write/talk about this in more detail somewhere?
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Grant agencies have to demonstrate to Congress that products are being generated for the dollars. That’s a strong incentive to fund programs that generate product—and the fastest way to generate product is to just generate more data.
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Imagine an agency looking favorably on a proposal that says “We’re going to produce nothing for 5-10 years except maybe some thinking that may or may not successfully lead to the solution of an outstanding problem.”
End of conversation
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Glad to hear you say that. Endorses my decision in 1992 to step out of institutions and work on my own. Couldn't have done what I've done within departmental constraints.
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