A more coordinated effort by scientists, stakeholders and community members will be required to stop the next deadly virus that’s already circulating in our midst.
Some of the dishes that make up the Square Kilometre Array’s radio telescope system. This kind of “blue skies” research can have great real-world value.
MUJAHID SAFODIEN/AFP via Getty Images
Vanessa McBride, International Astronomical Union's Office of Astronomy for Development
The pandemic has underscored that the world requires agility for survival. That makes blue skies science, which encourages curiosity and nimble thinking, perhaps more important than ever.
Expectations that academics raise funds themselves and aim to publish in certain ‘quality’ publications are shaping research and where it is published.
Mergers and splits involving education and research ministries, like the recent one in Indonesia, have huge consequences. How do other countries govern their national education and science policies?
Who should be allowed into U.S. labs and who should be kept out?
7postman/E+ via Getty Images
The recent arrest of a Chinese-born scientist at MIT raises questions about the value of international science collaboration and its impact on the American innovation system.
Researchers will struggle to meet universities’ expectations of engagement beyond academia until this work is better recognised as part of their duties.
Once featured in movies, TV shows and video games, the Arecibo Observatory was the pride of Puerto Rico.
RICARDO ARDUENGO / Contributor / AFP via Getty Images
New Zealand spends about $500m on environmental research each year, but fails to invest systematically in monitoring programmes to track the changing environment.
Few researchers will have the impact of Robert Langer, but they can learn from what researchers like him do.
Science History Institute/Wikipedia
Having to do engagement and impact assessments may feel like the last straw for weary and time-poor academics. But thinking about these things can underpin research excellence.
No-one wants our children to be used as research guinea pigs. High standards of ethical oversight are needed to ensure no child is exposed to possible harm.
The pioneering work being done in Australia to counter COVID-19 shows the benefits of long-term research investment.
Monash University/AAP
As well as extra funding for research beyond what has been announced in the budget for 2021, Australia must take half-a-dozen further steps to put the research sector back on a sound footing.
The early and mid-career researchers who bear most of the teaching and research workload are exhausted and underpaid. Many won’t survive the funding squeeze, but Australia can’t afford to lose them.
Changes caused by COVID-19 in the higher education sector could alter the power dynamics between African researchers and those from developed countries.
Travel bans, a recession and the government’s university reform package will leave an estimated $4.7 billion gap in research funding that needs filling to maintain our current output.
Universitas Gadjah Mada (above) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, has joined the ranks of the world’s top 300 universities in the 2021 QS World Rankings.
(Shutterstock)
Higher education institutions have started challenging the role of states as the dominant force in attracting foreign investment – particularly in terms of human talents and technological resources.
Many African researchers feel they should do research that would be acceptable for publication in Western outlets.
Oleksandr Rupeta/NurPhoto via Getty Images
With a threatening virus sweeping the world, research efforts across sectors have ground to a halt. But one thing is clear: the non-scientific community has never valued research more.
Dr Gildas Hounmanou with his colleagues at the University of Copenhagen. Hounmanou, from Benin, studied in Denmark.
Danida Fellowship Centre/Vibeke Quaade
Global research funding, such as that offered by Denmark’s government, can open doors for African researchers to study abroad and then take their skills home.
Director, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute & Professor of Medical Biology, and an honorary principal fellow in the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
Previous Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa and DSI-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics, Professor in Genetics, University of Pretoria, University of Pretoria