With public finances tight, governments around the world are demanding a return on their investment in science. Researchers should get used to it.
When the financial crisis hit in 2008 it became clear that the good times of the previous decade were not going to last. Researchers, who had gotten used to 10 years of steadily increasing budgets, immediately began making the case that investment in science and technology was the best way to ensure economic recovery.
In many countries, it worked. Despite plunging national revenues, governments around the world included extra funding for science and technology in their stimulus budgets.
But often the money came with strings attached. Read more in Materials Today.