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I am pleased to inform you that recently, yet another, a PostScript version
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Please enjoy this issue of Virtual Physics.
Sincerely yours,
Zbigniew Koziol
Myth of Competition and NSERC Policy of "Selectivity"
Alexander A. Berezin (1) and Geoffrey Hunter (2)
(1) Department of Engineering Physics,
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario,
Canada, L8S 4L7
BEREZIN@MCMASTER.CA
(2) Chemistry Department, York University,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3J 1P3
FS300022@SOL.YORKU.CA
The article has been published in Canadian Chemical News, March, 1994.
A widely held misconception about science it
that its quality can greatly benefit from the so
called "competition for excellence" which is externally
"coordinated" by funding agencies. Scientific and
engineering research in canadian universities is
supported almost exclusively through the Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).
The basis for the present NSERC funding philosophy
and practice is the idea of "selectivity", i.e.
the policy of NOT funding all the applicants.
This is done in the name of the alleged "excellence"
of research and its "competitiveness".
This is reflected both in the adopted NSERC terminology
(terms like "grant SELECTION committee", "next
COMPETITION") and the explicit instructions (!) to
committees to recommend a significant fraction of
applicants for non-awards ("NIL" awards).
Notwithstanding the best intentions of its designers,
the present NSERC funding system leads to a highly
detrimental effect: instead of being IDEA AND
OPPORTUNITY DRIVEN which is the true path to
excellence (1), the research is GRANT DRIVEN,
GRANT LIMITED and GRANT SEEKING. The only real
concern of any applicant to NSERC is how to optimize
all his/her research along a single (!) criterium :
fundability.
The net result of this system is that truly innovative
research is often suppressed by the censorship of
the peer-review process (2). The present NSERC policies
encourage prolific productivity of routine (but
easily publishable) results along well established
mainstream research directions. Peer-reviewers are
invariably drawn from the scientific establishement.
They will be supportive of the established (their)
projects rather than truly innovative projects;
innovative projects are by definition not
established (3). How supportive was the scientific
establishment when Boltzmann presented statistical
mechanics ?
Stressing the very idea of "competition" is based
on the illegitimate transfer of a business model to
science. This is a case when a model is used beyond
its actual range of validity. The so called "competition
for excellence" has long ago passed all reasonable
limits needed for a healthy stimulation and turned
into a ferocious rat-race and Darwinian fight for
survival based on a principle of confirmity to
the mainstream. Often really innovative research can
only be maintained by its careful concealment behind
the mainstream facade. This dilemma is especially
acute for many interdisciplinary studies and for the
research which challenges the accepted paradigmas and
the established dogmas.
While it is undeniable that many NSERC-supported
projects are of a very high calibre, they became so
largely IN SPITE of the system rather than because of
it. Their continuing support does not offset the highly
damaging implications of "NIL-awards" for the morale
and research ethics of the entire university community.
Also, a NIL-award to a researcher has a devastating
effect on his/her graduate students, many of whom will
consider dropping a research career altogether. This
means a potential loss of the most valuable of all
resources - a human talent.
In terms of canadian research output and international
competitiveness, NIL awards to active researchers
leave a significant fraction of highly (and often
uniquely !) trained scientists FUNCTIONALLY UNEMPLOYED
(even though they are paid salaries TO DO RESEARCH !).
Our (very concervative) estimate is that at least a
thousand (!) full-time faculty members in science
and engineering departments in canadian universities
have no external funding whatsoever. On the other hand,
a significant number of well established mainstream
research groups ("departmental empires"), often with
little real innovation, are clearly OVERfunded.
Furthermore, the overselling the notion of research
"underfunding" is in the interest of such super-groups
experienced in the game of Grantsmenship.
It is a very common stand for almost any group, including
the research community, to attribute all their problems
to the underfunding. "Just give us more money and
everything will be OK". It is always easier to blame
somebody else than to look inside your own
household - this is the reason why the underfunding
mythology is so universally attractive and popular.
However, despite that Canada indeed falls behind some
other developed contries in terms of its total R & D
expenedure, the crux of the problem is NOT so much in
the bulk underfunding as in the MISMANAGEMENT of the
available resources. Contrary to what may seem obvouis,
under the present funding system "more money" from the
government (even if lobbing for extra funding will
succeed !) will EXACERBATE rather than solve the problem,
as almost all gains of new public money will go to the
already well funded groups and NOT to NIL-funded
researchers. This is a well known "Matthew effect" in
science "give to those who have and take from thos who
haven't") (4).
We believe that the real roots of major flaws of present
NSERC system lie in its UNDEMOCRATIC nature. Presently the
membership renewal in committees is NOT discussed publicly
and no electorial process is in place. Instead, we have an
oligarchic system in which "committees are simply
designated by previuos committees". Apart from some
scattered letters in the public press from individual
researchers, there is no sound democratic feedback
mechanism to NSERC from the entire university research
community.
The ineviatble result of any oligarchic structure is that
it proliferates for its own sake. In NSERC case the
consequences are the overblown and overcomplicated (and
resource-draining) funding structure of many dozens of
discipline and program committees. To justify their very
existence the multiple NSERC committees require unnecessary
lengthly proposals and multistaged process of "proposals
evaluations". The latter process is de facto largely
consists of a second peer-review of already peer-reviewed
(!) published papers.
Present NSERC trend to even more tighter peer-review
"quality control", even greater "selectivity" in funding
(more NIL-awards) is a step in a precisely THE OPPOSITE
direction to what is required to forster the real
excellence and innovation. Paradoxically it may sound,
but agencies like NSERC need LESS (!) (and not more !)
expertise to improve their operations. The bottomline
performance of a complex decision-making system (like
NSERC) is NOT a linear function of the overall "expertise"
it has. In fact, it is an inverted U-curve with a maximum
(optimum) beyond which the system LOOSES its efficiency.
This is a known effect of an over-controlled system - too
many strings damage the adaptability. Like with vitamines,
the overdose turns stimulation into a poison. In our
opinion NSERC presently suffers from a severe
"OVERexpertisation".
To alleviate the damaging aspects of present NSERC
functioning for the canadian university system, canadian
economic competitiveness and better management of
financial and human resources WE PROPOSE THE FOLLOWING
REFORMS:
- 1. Numerous "grant selection committees" should be
amalgamated to just a few. Their present activity is
largely in "peer-reviewing" of proposals which are
almost invariably based on already peer-reviewed
published papers. There is no need to do peer-review
twice. This simply imposes an unfair "double taxation"
on the ideas, work and time of the researchers.
- 2. Out of 3 present NSERC criteria ("excellence of the
applicant", "excellence of proposals" and "need for
funds") only 1st and 3rd should be left. "Excellence
of proposals" is largely a Red Herring. For all practical
purposes, the presently used 1-page form (NSERC form 180:
"intent to apply") is FULLY SUFFICIENT IN ITSELF, i.e.
as a rule no "longer" proposals should be written AT ALL.
This will not only save many truckloads of paper, but
millions of hours of a highly qualified professional
labor (at $ 30 per hour at cheapest !) to write AND read
the typewritten compilations of already published papers.
(Longer proposals can be left as optional only for some
special cases, e.g. for group grants in high-energy physics,
or for the first-time applicants yet without published
papers).
In short: FUND RESEARCHERS, NOT PROPOSALS.
- 3. The rat-race terminology (grant "selection" ; NSERC
"competition") should be eliminated from the documents
and actual policies. Its continuous use is harmful for
the morale of the entire community and sends a damagingly
wrong message, especially to young scientists, forcing
many of them out of profession and/or out of the country.
Science can not and should not operate by the rules of
beauty contests and wrestling games. ALL university-based
researchers whose active status can be sensibly
demonstrated, should be funded at some (basic) level using
a SLIDING FUNDING SCALE rather than NIL-awards (5). These
basic awards (we suggest to call them RBMG - Research Base
Maintenance Grants) may not be great but they should cover
such fundamental expenses as any serious researcher has:
publication and reprint charges, conference travel,
computing and software, electronic networking, etc. The
gradaute student support can be much more efficiently met
through the direct grants to the departments where the
students are being trained. We also note, that personal
research expenses which professors squize from their
personal salaries are NOT TAX DEDUCTABLE !
In any case: NIL awards to ACTIVE researchers should not
be tolerated. This practice is based on an ill-conceived
philosophy of the alleged efficiency of a rat-race
"competition" in science when only peer-review defined
"excellence" is to be rewarded. In reality, NIL-awards
amount to wasteful and irresponsible mismanagement of the
scientific and intellectual resources of this country.
- 4. It is imperative to obtain the views of the scientific
community on whether NSERC officials should be elected by
all those eligible for funding, and if found to be so, the
electorial process should be instituted. Nomination to NSERC
bodies (including the President) should be discussed PUBLICLY
and in advance, perhaps through a special bulletin. The
candidates should provide their platforms and be open to
public questioning and criticism before they are elected
to the office. They should be regularly publicly accountable
during their entire term in the office. It is also critically
important that the minority and dissentering views are duly
represented.
To conclude, contrary to a misleading similarity, the
terms "competitiveness" and "competition" are quite
different. The real competitiveness of research comes
from open opportunities and NOT from the enforced
"competition" which in many cases directly detrimental
for the very spirit of the reasearch. We believe that
a wide and open public dialogue on the above issues is
highly desirable for the strengthening of the economic
efficiencey, international competitiveness and social
responsibility of the canadian research enterprise.
References
- [1] A.K. Vijh, Canadian Chemical News, 42 (# 10), 14 (1990).
- [2] A.A. Berezin, American Journal of Physics, 57, 392 (1989).
- [3] L. Hocker, Physics Today, 46 (#8), 13 (1993).
- [4] R.K. Merton, Science, 159, 56 (1968).
- [5] D.R. Forsdyke, Nature, 312, 587 (1984).
In a joint effort of Electrotechnical Laboratory, ETL,
Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Ministry of International Trade and Industry,
and
International Superconductivity Technology Center Foundation, ISTEC,
a new database of titles published on superconductivity has been made available for
browsing on www, http://www.aist.go.jp/RIODB/sprcnd_etl/.
- Database includes papers on superconductivity published in 20-50
journals since the discovery of high-Tc superconductivity in 1987.
It contains the following subcategories:
- high-Tc superconductivity,
- C60-related materials,
- organic conductors,
- non-oxide superconductors including the conventional superconductors,
- oxide conductors.
- Total number of articles at present amounts to 30,000.
This is the largest and best organized source of information
about the scientific publications on superconductivity.
I have visited the site and I have been impressed by the amount
of work which must have been done there. While some random
searches
gaved me the result that about 30% only of articles on the subject has been
registered there, the database is already a powerful tool in a research work
and I would like to recommend using it.
Zbigniew Koziol
Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity
High Temperature Superconductors V
Homepage of M2S-HTSC-V
(based on a message received on July 31, 1996, from
Zhang Zhong, zzhang@cl.cryo.ac.cn)
The 5th International Conference on Materials and Mechanisms
of Superconductivity and High-Temperature Superconductors will
be held between February 28th and March 4th 1997 in Beijing, P.R. China.
You can get the newest information of the conference at the following URL address:
http://sun1.bham.ac.uk/hey/conferences/M2S-HTSC-V.htm
M2S-HTSC-V Secretariat E-mail address is: djin@cl.cryo.ac.cn
About Virtual Physics and the Submission Policy
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Virtual Physics:
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Letter from the Editor