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‘The funding of university research can no longer be predominantly organised on a “let a thousand flowers bloom” model’
Research areas with insufficient impact on society
Similar considerations apply in every field of research but with varied outcomes. Research fields like information and communications technology, and engineering are similarly strong across the range of challenges facing society. Research into the environment and climate change, meanwhile, offers an interesting contrast. It has successfully identified the real challenges of climate change, and so has influenced leaders of government and public opinion of the need to address the threats. That is why the 2015 Paris Agreement committed governments to risk-reducing targets – though some governments are now rejecting these accords. However, research has been far less successful in identifying clear and practical ways of mitigating the threat of climate change and getting these measures adopted. There are other important areas, such as educational performance, good government, law and order and policing, migration, eliminating poverty and promoting equality, where universities have also been far less successful in contributing to meeting the challenges of change in the modern world. Excellent work is being done in these areas but, thus far, without sufficient impact on society. The difficulties in dealing with
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