US budget woes spur resurgence of team science

Chronicle of Higher Education : As budgets tighten in the US, universities and the government are both pushing for more interdisciplinary science, or “team science.” The concept is not new—the Manhattan Project in the 1940s is a prime example. A major advantage of the approach is that it typically “encompasses the scientific process from basic discoveries through commercial production,” writes Paul Basken for the Chronicle of Higher Education. That is a concept that lawmakers and voters can more easily understand and, therefore, are more willing to finance. However, both universities and government are also calling for more effort from the other to make it work: Government officials say universities need to make fundamental changes in tenure and other faculty rules, while university officials counter that significant change in financial incentives from government are needed.