Sputnik moment or budget breaker: How will the pandemic alter research funding?

Sputnik moment or budget breaker: How will the pandemic alter research funding?

Sputnik moment or budget breaker?

In the second of our series on science after the pandemic, Nature explores how the pandemic will alter research funding. Some experts fear it could harm science for decades by putting many thousands of researchers out of work and forcing nations to slash funding as they rebuild societies. Others say it could highlight the importance of science and spur long-term support, especially for basic research, much as the Second World War did.
Nature | 5 min read

How scientific conferences will survive

Virtual meetings are becoming the norm under COVID-19 and are winning over many researchers. Scientists with family responsibilities, those with disabilities and those looking to reduce their carbon footprint are among those who hope we’ll never go back to the old ways of doing things. “If given the option, I think I would almost always choose to do the virtual one,” says physicist Adam Fortais. “It just seems better to me in almost all ways.”
Nature | 5 min readRead more in our series on science after the pandemic: Universities will never be the same (Nature | 9 min read)