Scientists believe government and research councils focus too heavily on economic outcomes of research, according to the findings reported last month by the Institute of Ideas.

The study, conducted by the UK-based institute, also revealed divisions among scientists over whether the growth in ethical checks and balances is a good thing. More than 200 researchers responded to the online survey conducted for the institute’s two-day interdisciplinary festival held in London at the end of October.

Asked whether the government was taking “too instrumental an approach towards scientific research in general,” some 84 per cent found that it was. Another 62 per cent also rated as “too instrumental” the approach by research councils, compared with universities at 47 per cent.

Tony Gilland, science and society director at the institute, told the Times Higher: “There is a lot of pent-up anger and frustration among scientists as to the level of demand for deliverables — economic or otherwise — as opposed to whether it is excellent science.”

Gilland said that while the respondents were self-selected, their views reflected a clear mood that science is excessively regulated.

CAUT executive director James Turk noted that Canadian scientists have voiced these concerns for years. A 2000 letter to then prime minister Jean Chrétien protesting the report of the Expert Panel on the Commercialization of University Research was circulated by CAUT and signed by more than 1,400 scientists across the country. The report recommended tying university research more closely to corporate priorities.

“The response from the scientific community in signing the letter was immediate and overwhelming and indicates a serious concern with trying to direct science rather than focusing primarily on basic research,” Turk said.

CAUT’s online commentary on university research says, “Universities must ensure that industry and government understand that true scientific invention cannot be commanded and that the greatest advances in science are likely to occur in the freest scientific atmosphere.”

The UK study also found that research relevant to government policy priorities, such as obesity, climate change and terrorism, was seen to be dominating the agenda of government and the research councils “too much.”