112. Science is not an expense, it is an investment. And a smart one.
The
coronavirus crisis has highlighted the role and importance of science in
society, bringing it into the public consciousness, sharing some space in the
public imagination. This presents an opportunity for countries to increase
their public investment in fundamental science and in Research and Development,
which often suffers badly during recessions, fluctuating between 3% of GDP and
nothing, depending on the country. The problem is that society perceives
science as expense and not investment, because we look at it with a short term
eye, the eye we use for climate impact, sustainability, etc. But it is not.
Scientific developments create high quality companies and high quality jobs,
and therefore, short term economic returns for the public purse in the form of
taxes. But today we don’t account for this, we don’t know, as an economy, the
direct short term returns of investment in science and, whilst we don’t, we’ll
continue to perceive it as an expense, and to cut it when trouble hits
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