Discovery is not the opposite of application

Hiranya V. Peiris

doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00964-3

Discovery is not the opposite of application

Physics and Society 2026-07-31 v1

Authors: Hiranya V. Peiris

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Abstract

Restructuring research funding as a choice between discovery and application gets the economics wrong, the evidence wrong and the people wrong.

Keywords

research funding discovery application science policy economics of science

Cite

@article{arxiv.2608.00172,
  title  = {Discovery is not the opposite of application},
  author = {Hiranya V. Peiris},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2608.00172},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Published as a Comment in Nature Reviews Physics 8, 400--401 (2026)