The Singular Barrier to Scientific Collaboration (and why Sean Parker is worried)

Posted by on Apr 25, 2016
The Singular Barrier to Scientific Collaboration (and why Sean Parker is worried)
Publish or Perish

Amidst the recent media burst when Sean Parker’s $250M immunotherapy cancer center was announced, Forbes’ coverage by Matthew Herper nailed it: misaligned incentives stifle scientific discovery. He writes,

Parker told me that he worries that the incentives in science lead researchers to work not on their best, bravest idea, but on what will get them published or will get their next grant funded. (emphasis added)

Herper also reported that this was of concern to Susan Desmond-Hellmann, a former oncology researcher, now chief officer at the Gates Foundation. She says,

Whenever you want to do something with pace and purpose, money and collaboration are really helpful. And it’s difficult to collaborate in academia. You care about credit, you care about your institution, you care about your lab.

Welcoming Pilot Communities to Rapid Science

Posted by on Feb 2, 2016
Welcoming Pilot Communities to Rapid Science

We are thrilled to welcome our inaugural collaborative working groups, who will be conducting research in the fields of behavior change, precision medicine, and aging. Investigators in these communities will exchange insights and research results across far-ranging disciplines such as oncology, psychology, molecular biology, behavioral medicine, sociology, and public health, utilizing our soon-to-launch Rapid Learning Platform (RLP) and Cases Central database.