Sadly Turkey is not the only country taking steps that can hinder its academic progress. British exit from the EU might very well jeopardise the world-class science for which the UK was known. At the moment UK universities receive 10% of their research funding from the EU, amounting to more than £1B a year. These funds won't be easy to replace even if the future British government will agree to cover them. What is irreplaceable though, is the ease of collaboration between the UK and other european universities.
What does science need to thrive?
Freedom of expression: all results, even negative ones can contribute to academic development. Not disclosing research results leads to waste of time and resources.
High level of collaboration: a good example is the convergence of the life sciences with the physical sciences and engineering, which results in more rapid progress, better detection, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases.
Open science: sharing research, data and general knowledge help others learn and progress faster
Transparency: we should prevent situations in which researchers don’t disclose the results of their clinical trials, choosing instead to tweak them to increase their chances of getting published in prestigious journals.
Sustainable long-term investment in science: pressure to "publish or perish" can discourage innovative research. Hyper-competition stunts scientific curiosity and productivity, breeds fabrication and carelessness in the publication of data, and leads to a waste of valuable resources and intellectual capital. The general policy should maximize the potential for scientific discovery and minimize the loss of talented researchers who can contribute to science.
The most rapid progress occurs in places where the ideas are exchanged freely. Too much interference from centralised entities - such as governments - leads to inefficiency. It slows things down, and results in lost research opportunities. We all benefit from living in a society in which scientific research utilises the benefits of past research.
Do you have another point of view or would like to share ideas how to make science thrive? Let us know!