Viewpoint: Yes, by attenuating peer review mechanisms, grant evaluation systems encourage mediocre science.

Viewpoint: No, although far from perfect, the present grant system acts to promote science.

In economic terms, the knowledge obtained through scientific research usually falls in the category of "public good," that is, a product of labor that benefits the population as a whole and for which there is no particular ownership. Although some scientific discoveries are treated as "intellectual property," through the use of patents or trade secrets, at least for a time, since the scientific revolution of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, scientific societies and academic institutions have placed a premium on the open publication of results. The questions of who should pay for the expense of producing research results and how to allocate resources among the putative producers...