How do we ask for money? A view of funding for basic research

Abstract

Speaking to scientists about the need for more support and funding for basic scientific research usually amounts to ‘preaching to the converted'. Indeed, just a few years ago, there would have been no rationale for writing a defence of such an enterprise. Yet, recent interactions with scientists and physicians have made us aware that even the people who carry out basic research do so with very different objectives. This article is not, therefore, a sermon; rather, it is a wake-up call for scientists to realize that their investigative freedom is being increasingly curtailed