On 7 March in
European innovators have long come a poor second to their North American counterparts, when it comes to sounding the trumpets about their accomplishments – and ways to make money from them. You see it in universities. You see in businesses, big and small.
This has several consequences.
The most obvious is that publicity floods to American research. And European universities are less likely to come to the attention of the companies and investors who might be willing to back an idea.
Poor visibility also creates the wrong impression among other interested parties – from the kids who might study science and come up with the next big thing, to the politicians who decide if they will spend our money to fund the research that those young people might do one day.
The
reluctance of businesses to talk technology has similar effects. It
leaves analysts and investors ignorant of an important part of the
businesses that they follow. It also misses the chance to say to
consumers: “Look, we are here to do more than just make money. And
those things we sell you really are the latest thing.”
Not talking science also leaves the way open for anti-business – they
would call it pro-environment – activists to use science as a weapon
against you. (You can’t suddenly come in brandishing your science if
you haven’t already established your credibility on that front.)
It is time for the research community to become more active in promoting science that delivers real value – not just the culturally fascinating, but technologically irrelevant, stuff of black holes, big bangs and particles smashing into one another at the speed of light.
Sure, biomedics strut their stuff, much more so than their contribution to innovation justifies. But that has the unfortunate effect of skewing the attention of the media ever more than is justified by the natural interest that people have in their own health.
Fortunately, there are signs of life in
Universities are getting their act together, albeit with pitiful resources in comparison with academics in the
This meeting calls on researchers in
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