Forskere i Storbritannia som mottar offentlige midler kan få munnkurv

Dersom en ny bestemmelse blir vedtatt i Storbritannia de neste dagene så kan forskere som mottar offentlige midler bli avskåret fra å rapportere om forskningen sin. Siden mange forskningsresultater i sin natur er et brudd med det bestående, så sier det seg selv at dette kan få store utilsiktede konsekvenser, for eksempel for klimaforskere eller sosialforskere slik The Guardian rapporterer:

For example, an academic whose government-funded research showed that new regulations were proving particularly harmful to the homeless would not be able to call for policy change.

Similarly, ecologists who found out that new planning laws were harming wildlife would not be able to raise the issue in public, while climate scientists whose findings undermined government energy policy could have work suppressed.

Fiona Fox, leder for Science Data Center advarer mot utviklingen:

“The anti-lobbying clause will send some of our best researchers back to the relative safety of the laboratory and away from the media fray they already fear. That will be a victory for ignorance and a blow for the evidence-based policy that our politicians claim to want.”