The Black Hole
My purpose is not to scare you, but to summarize the reality of the present economic climate for young scientists.
After many months of consideration, Jonathan and I have finally decided to push forward with making the Black Hole blog entries into a book. The last six years have seen a steady stream of blog entries, reader comments and guest posts that have highlighted many of the major issues challenging the way our system currently […]
One of the best peer-review processes that I have experienced is one that I didn’t get a great outcome from. I was applying for one of my first research grants with the U.K. Medical Research Council and did not get an interview based on the reviews of six experts who each had read my research […]
Editor’s note: This week, we are very pleased to have a guest post from Jiro Inoue, a postdoctoral fellow at the Robarts Research Institute, Western University. He is the current vice-president, external, of the postdoctoral association at Western, and the vice-chair, operations, of the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars. Dr. Inoue has shared his thoughts on […]
It’s time again for what has become (much to my dismay) an annual article series that began in fiscal year 2012 on the uncertain health of National Institutes of Health’s fiscal outlook (see 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012). Again, we find ourselves in a now common stalemate as the United States’ Senate and House Appropriations Committees […]
The summer months are often a time for reflection and it is important for us all to take stock every now and then. For many of us, this means deciding whether or not to begin a new line of work, move residence, or to spend more time with family. In this time of reflection, I have stumbled […]
This post was written with Sven Karlsson, CFA, an Energy & Technology Venture Investor with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the co-founder and chief business officer for Platelet Biogenesis. Business accelerators have become fashionable, and for good reason. They offer aspiring entrepreneurs access to expert mentors, marketing and media resources, funding opportunities, and office […]
In the spirit of openness, we need a quantifiable, binding scoring system.
This post was written with Sven Karlsson, CFA, an energy and technology venture investor with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, and the co-founder and chief business officer for Platelet Biogenesis. Business accelerators have become fashionable, and for good reason. They offer aspiring entrepreneurs access to expert mentors, marketing and media resources, funding opportunities, and office […]
This quarter has featured a series of three articles from Jonathan on helping move academic research into developing products and maximizing societal impact that form the basis of a clear strategy moving forward. On the other side of things, guest blogger Brianne Kent and I (no relation!) have poked again at the issues of academic […]
You would have to be living under a rock to not have heard about the comments that Sir Tim Hunt made to a group of female Korean researchers. After calling “girls” in laboratories “trouble” amongst worse remarks, Professor Hunt has lost his appointment at UCL, has had the Royal Society distance itself from him and […]
Business accelerators have become fashionable, and for good reason. They offer aspiring entrepreneurs access to expert mentors, marketing and media resources, funding opportunities, and office space. In part 5 of this multi-part article series I describe intellectual property concerns needs that existing and future business accelerators will need to address to better serve Life Science […]
This month, Marian Joëls, Monica Di Luca, and Barry Everitt, who are the former president, current president, and president-elect, respectively, of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, wrote an article in the European Journal of Neuroscience calling for the academic system to be reformed. They urge scientists to “stand up and organize an orchestrated rejection […]
Business accelerators have become fashionable, and for good reason. They offer aspiring entrepreneurs access to expert mentors, marketing and media resources, funding opportunities, and office space. In part 4 of this multi-part article series I describe still unmet needs that existing and future business accelerators will need to address to better serve Life Science entrepreneurs. […]
A change to open-access policies, and NSERC’s move on parental leave, are worth celebrating.
Business accelerators have become fashionable, and for good reason. They offer aspiring entrepreneurs access to expert mentors, marketing and media resources, funding opportunities, and office space. In part three of this multi-part article series I describe my personal experiences at MassCONNECT, and highlight its respective strengths and weaknesses. The goal is to help academic research […]
The post on changing the publishing system was the most hotly debated of the quarter, but also the one with the least clear way forward.
Business accelerators have become fashionable, and for good reason. They offer aspiring entrepreneurs access to expert mentors, marketing and media resources, funding opportunities, and office space. In part two of this multi-part article series I describe my personal experiences at MassChallenge and highlight what I think to be its strengths and weaknesses. The goal is […]
How do we continue to meet the laboratory research needs if we pull skilled people out of the research stream?
Guest blogger Jan Klimas asks, why can’t rejection letters be a bit more helpful with their feedback?