this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
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"I want to make the world a better place at no real benefit to myself"
"Ok, but only if you beg us for the money"
Modern academia in a nutshell
Yeah, in a lot of fields it simply would pay more to go private lmao
Still, it feels more rewarding to contribute to the scientific body than to just make someone else rich
So, if your field appears instantly/imminently monetisable, then the private sector is an option. However, the wider benefits of your research are VERY unlikely to reach the wider public in your lifetime. Yes, you will basically be working to make someone else rich. However, this kind of grant is very likely to succeed in academic settings as universities love patents.
If you're doing abstract or fundamental research, you're pretty much out of luck - the private sector does not want anything to do with this. However, it's little better in the academic sector because you have to spend almost all your time chasing grants, or teaching topics outside your expertise (i.e. the ones industry sees immediate value in) to survive.
In short, there is a lot of options to finish things (because everyone loves intellectual property as an asset), but very few to develop them (no-one likes to pay for the groundwork).