A New York Times headline from earlier this week: “The Billionaires Spending a Fortune to Lure Scientists Away From Universities.” We’ve already seen quite a few similar organizations pop up in the past couple of years — Arc Institute, Arcadia Science, and others
Science is not free - it is peered. Peers do not like anybody out-peering them! The whole model is flawed. There should be a second line of public finance for non-marginal science and innovation.
I believe that under current standards north of 50% of any bequest/grant goes to administrative 'overhead'. That has to be highly discouraging to the informed donor. I know that Jim Simon's has, for years directly contributed to scientists/projects he considers promising. Of course he is obviously more intelligent than almost any administrator/university official. I would think that most people capable of accumulating a billion plus dollars are also more qualified to judge talent than the typical nih/nsf flunky. Given the 50%+ headstart on where funds go when self-administered, I think this makes a lot of sense.
PS- I am really impressed with your idea that a certain percentage of funding should go to projects not deemed mainstream or likely to succeed.
Science is not free - it is peered. Peers do not like anybody out-peering them! The whole model is flawed. There should be a second line of public finance for non-marginal science and innovation.
I believe that under current standards north of 50% of any bequest/grant goes to administrative 'overhead'. That has to be highly discouraging to the informed donor. I know that Jim Simon's has, for years directly contributed to scientists/projects he considers promising. Of course he is obviously more intelligent than almost any administrator/university official. I would think that most people capable of accumulating a billion plus dollars are also more qualified to judge talent than the typical nih/nsf flunky. Given the 50%+ headstart on where funds go when self-administered, I think this makes a lot of sense.
PS- I am really impressed with your idea that a certain percentage of funding should go to projects not deemed mainstream or likely to succeed.