• Question: What legislation would you change to improve how science in your field is done?

    Asked by ♥aaliyah♥ to Adrian, Gaia, Jim, Scott, Vicky on 11 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Jim Barrett

      Jim Barrett answered on 11 Mar 2016:

      Just like everything else at the moment, Science money is being cut quite a lot by the government, and student fees might go up again.

      I would definitely make university education free again, if i could change one thing.

    • Photo: Scott Lawrie

      Scott Lawrie answered on 11 Mar 2016:

      I don’t think legislation can change how science is ‘done’, certainly not on a field-to-field basis. Politicians have no influence over plasma physics, for example!

      However government and legislation CAN control how much money goes to fund science. We need to spend money to perform our experiments. Since government money comes from the public’s taxes, we need to inform the public what we’re doing and make them feel more comfortable with science so they’re happy to pay for it.

      That’s why things like this ‘I’m a Scientist’ are great. They let us communicate with you guys so you can make an informed decision about whether you like us or not 🙂

    • Photo: Gaia Andreoletti

      Gaia Andreoletti answered on 11 Mar 2016:

      In the UK, the legislations for conducting genetics research are good, if not excellent. In Italy, unfortunately, is another story…

    • Photo: Adrian Buzatu

      Adrian Buzatu answered on 11 Mar 2016:

      Maybe I should that funding for PhD student salaries should be included in research grant proposals, like in US and Canada, make the PhD thesis evaluations (called viva) public and with more reviewers (just two academics review the thesis at the moment), make it easier to attract scientists from across the world (not just from the EU, as now).

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