• Question: do you think the government need to spend more money in space/ science

    Asked by anon-208362 to Tori, Titus, Stuart, Gill, Alessandro, Hannah on 5 Mar 2019. This question was also asked by anon-208356.
    • Photo: Hannah Dalgleish

      Hannah Dalgleish answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      Yes! Humanity has an endless curiosity about their origins, and by supporting (space) science we will get closer to understanding the history of the universe. We’ll also likely discover a lot of new technology along the way. (The internet and GPS is a result of astronomy-related science.)

    • Photo: Titus Mutwiri

      Titus Mutwiri answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      Few governments across the world allocate enough money for for science. The total GDP allocated by each country to help develop scientific initiatives is a factor that all countries needs to evaluate.

    • Photo: Gill Harrison

      Gill Harrison answered on 6 Mar 2019:

      I think there needs to be money spent on lots of things relating to science! I must admit though, I’d hate to be the one to chose where to spend the money, when there are so many competing demands. It would be good to see better management of money & looking at where money is being wasted on ‘vanity projects’ (they might make us look good now, but are not really good value for money or for the wider benefit) that have not been properly evaluated would be a good place to start, so that we could invest money in worthwhile projects that will benefit everyone in the future.

    • Photo: Stuart Higgins

      Stuart Higgins answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      A report published by the government estimates that for every £1 it spends on science research it gets about £1.20 – £1.50 back in return. And as well as making more money than it costs, society also gets the benefit of all the new science and engineering knowledge too.

      At the same time, it’s quite hard for most scientists to get money to do science. A lot of time is spent as a scientist writing applications for money, which could instead be spent doing science.

      It’s really important that we spend money carefully, we shouldn’t just give scientists money because they’re scientists – they should be able to justify why. There are many other very important things the government needs to spend money on too, so it’s always a balance. But I think the because science has so many benefits, and because it makes more money for the country than it costs, it does makes sense to spend more money on science. This would make it easier for the scientists to spend more time doing the work, without having to think about money all the time.

      Government report:
      https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/science-and-innovation-rates-of-return-to-investment

Comments