New posting! This one is about #research #funding, and whether the collective - and not the individual - should be the unit of selection. Some fond memories of my #LMB days while writing this 😊 Big thx for all favouriting/boosts/replies 👇
https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2025/05/22/the-unit-of-selection/
@steveroyle @TIR_scienceblog just responding without reading the blog yet: definitely safer in number, I still use the equipment shared from senior PI in our department and we also have a consumable share mechanism to reduce unnecessary over-purchases. So people within the mechanism can just go to the common shelves to pick up things and we sort out the payment among the PIs.
@steveroyle @TIR_scienceblog Yes yes yes! V interesting article.
It is part of the broader problem of fixating on success of individuals, undervaluing work to faciliate the research of others- locally, nationally, or internationally.
This is damaging because (IMO) science would progress more quickly if we think of ourselves as a big collective with a shared mission (although I do acknowledge the counterarguments). Recent steps from funders go in the right direction, but more could be done..
@CellySally @TIR_scienceblog I hadn't thought about it that way. I believe that everyone should facilitate the research of others, and I find it sad that some don’t. I suppose this is undervaluing this contribution myself! Even if it's me doing it... Seriously, your comment has 🤯
@steveroyle @TIR_scienceblog I have a lot of thoughts about this, particularly in relation to what it means to be a 'succcessful researcher'. I would try to summarise my thoughts here but unfortunately I can't because my own brain has recently exploded following the aforementioned realisation that 1995 was thirty years ago 🤯 🙃
@CellySally you keep repeating this obvious lie. 1995 was just yesterday…
@MCDuncanLab @CellySally ha ha!! Mara, you should totally replace your Mastofon avatar with that photo! Also, I didn’t realise you were in the same class as Minnie Wu! We were lab mates in Cambridge.
@MCDuncanLab @CellySally oh and @pmcarlton is there too!
@steveroyle @MCDuncanLab
You might recognize more people in the whole set: https://mcb.berkeley.edu/group/mcb_alumni/class-photos
Looking forward to the reunion!
Yep. I'm hoping to see her and a lot of the crew at a class reunion later this summer.
@MCDuncanLab nice. Well say hi to her and Brian Peter from me.
@MCDuncanLab @steveroyle Oh this is great! I wish UK PhD programmes did this. I don't know whether anyone else from my PhD cohort is still in active research, and I have no way of looking them up now.
*taps mic* HELLOOOO! Anyone out there from the ICRF Lincoln's Inn Fields 1996 PhD intake? #LongShot
I think we are the first class to do this.
I started to organize it last summer by contacting people and asking if they were interested.
A crew of people still in the area took over the actual planning, including Russel Vance who is faculty at Berkeley and was able to get MCB to front some money for a symposium open to current students under the guise of career development/networking.
@MCDuncanLab @steveroyle @CellySally I wasn’t even born in 1995 😉
@MAFesenko blocked and reported. @MCDuncanLab @CellySally
@MCDuncanLab @steveroyle @CellySally nice to know I am not the only GenX hanging around 😂
@steveroyle forgot to say: congratulations! This is the correct answer to yesterdays #FridayMusicQuiz. Your prize is a pipe and a pair of slippers.
@CellySally thank you. I’ll add them to my collection!
@TIR_scienceblog it's an interesting gedanken experiment: would be possible to switch a University department from the individual model to the collective. I suspect the composition of PIs in a University dept has been selected for different traits than a Research Unit built from scratch, making collective assessment challenging. Certainly the buffer of collective assessment would make things less fraught and probably allow riskier long-term science.
Thanks for the interesting post!