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Published online 11 June 2008 | Nature 453, 838 (2008) | doi:10.1038/453838a
Column: Party of One
A delicate balance
Near-term and long-term research are vying for attention. David Goldston says that a fuller congressional debate is needed.
Most of the debate on research policy in Washington DC is over how much to spend, but there is a growing, if inchoate, discussion about what type of work to support. As is often the case, the trend can be spotted through the increasing appearance of buzzwords; two current examples are the somewhat opposing notions of 'translational research' (shorter-term work focused on coming up with new products) and 'transformative research' (longer-term work aimed at coming up with new ideas).
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