"Michael Park and colleagues observe a “decline in disruptiveness” across research fields over the past six decades. One explanation might be a fundamental shift in the nature of research in science and technology, but there is another.
In the United Kingdom, an almost tenfold increase in the number of academics since about 1970 has led funding agencies to peer review grant applications as they would completed work. The success rate for grants almost exclusively represents ‘safe’ proposals for incremental research.
To escape this system, the oil company BP invited me to set up a venture research initiative in 1980 in Europe and North America. We selected roughly 40 unique lines of enquiry from some 10,000 proposals for an investment of around £20 million (around £75 million, or US$92 million, today). Selection was based on face-to-face discussion, which forbade mention of possible outcomes. The programme had no priority fields, fostered mutual trust and focused on the science proposed. Feedback was given in real time.
On the basis of this success, a similar initiative was set up at University College London. In 2009, it awarded £150,000 to one applicant, who subsequently won some £5 million in external support. Other universities are invited to follow our lead." [1]
1. Nature 614, 227 (2023)
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