New Science report argues NSF's incentive problems call for a major metascience push
alexeyguzey · x · 2026-10-18
Matt Faherty's report on the US National Science Foundation, shared by Patrick Collison, argues that despite its lean structure and professionalism, NSF suffers the same incentive problems as NIH: hyper-competition, conservative grant choices, and excessive bureaucracy. It contends most reform proposals can't be judged rigorously because the field lacks validated measures of scientific output, and calls for major investment in metascience so agencies can experimentally test reforms like people-over-projects funding and funding replication. NSF's newly announced Office of Metascience is a step in that direction.
Related event: New Science Report Calls for Metascience Experiments to Reform NSF Funding(2 posts)→
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