The Need to Focus on Basic Research

"One could not be a successful scientist without realising that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow minded and dull but also just stupid."
- James D. Watson "The Double Helix"

This article "Free mind on research" catches my attention today from Today Online. Our research direction has been charted on applied research and it does require a careful look. If we do not want to end up as a nation of "socially engineered PhD laboratory technicians" and have independent minded thinkers who can come up with maverick inventions, it is important for us to look to basic research. I heard about bureaucrats who possess the delusion of grandeur in managing science and cannot do it themselves by their own merit, but I am pretty sure in the back of their mind, they know that one Creative Inc or a Crick and Watson feat can trump over the rest of the mediocre numbers of companies or people generated. However, I see that there is going to be a problem with the government since their view of performance is measured in dollars and cents.

So is there no way to make basic research happen in Singapore? Of course, there are ways to do that and the only way to do this sadly is to look at private sector funding. It means that we need to have more people like Sim Wong Hoo and company who can be as far-sighted as Bill Gates and the founders of Google to put money in private foundations to fund basic research. I have written an article "Can Singapore support basic science and humanities?" in Singapore Angle last year to examine the prospects of creating a basic science culture.

Comments

[Christopher Ng Wai Chung]

Since I'm here, I might as well say a few things on basic research.

Now, we know that SIngaporeans are not too happy with the way the government is managing our money in Thailand and Suzhou.

Now imagine that you have a portfolio of investments and have "basic science" as an asset class. Even if we can establish that it is a good thing to invest in, would it attract more negativity from the people ( like other bloggers. )

It's a chicken for the egg problem, basic science must prove itself a powerful investment instrument, otherwise it's not easy to use tax payer's money to fund it.

I would be surprised if the private wealthy families would bother with funding basic sciences. Other NKF-like charities have years of experience stroking the rich and wealthy in singapore, odds are they have other ways to spend their money to feel good.

So my advice to you guys who want to start a research foundation: Study the rich. Know what it takes to make them feel good about themselves and your money will come.

One day I will publish something of the idiosyncracies of the rich but I'm light years from joining their ranks !

Regards

[twasher]

I think BL is right; given the govt's short-sightedness the only hope is that there will be a Singaporean counterpart like Fred Kavli who will fund basic research just because he thinks basic science is intrinsically important, independent of its projected financial returns. Unfortunately, given the prevalent Singaporean culture of crass materialism, this is highly unlikely.

[Bernard Leong]

Akira,

I have looked at the research areas in the newly formed Research Enterprise Innovation Council, led by Dr Tony Tan. The new established research foundation seems to be running in research areas that are similar to those in A-STAR: translational healthcare research, environmental technologies and digital media. It is unlikely that they will fund basic research.

It is difficult for Singapore government to fund basic research because their focus in spending for R&D is to obtain short term economic gains.

The private sector is a better place to find funding, because there is a chance of convincing some crazy millionaire to create a research institute in theoretical sciences.

[Akira]

I don't agree that only private sector can fund basic research. Anyway in Singapore, what 'private sector' do we have that is capable of funding on a large scale these research projects that have no prospect of making money? I personally think that the country needs to have a strong basic research capability before applied research can take off. Especially now that science is so interdisciplinary, not matter how much money you throw into one field, if you don't have good foundations in the few basic sciences, you will never do well. Just my personal opinion. I feel the government is slowly starting to understand this. I feel like the place to do this is the NRF. Do you have any idea what they are doing? I'm curious...

[twasher]

I'm not entirely sure about this, but it seems to me that the countries most successful in the applied sciences are also those most successful in basic research. The same goes for universities. (One could argue that this is a correlation arising from generally higher levels of research funds or better talent pools in the same few countries, but it is telling that no one yet has succeeded in an all-applied strategy.) In my opinion AStar doesn't realise that in research, people can be (are?) more important than money. Unfortunately, their attitudes towards research and talent drive away the very kind of people they need. Creative free spirits detest being restricted in their research and much prefer the academic environments in Western countries, which means that AStar has to throw money at them to lure them ot Singapore. And, needless to say, AStar's scholarship policies are doing quite the opposite of nurturing independent minded thinkers.