Facing the Long Term: An Inquiry into Opportunities to Improve the Climate for Research with Reference to Limnology in Canada

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Abstract
Deterioration of the climate for research was the main concern expressed in individual interviews with 125 freshwater scientists. The principal problem cited in the Department of Fisheries and the Environment (DFE) was disruptions to the continuity and time frame essential to research; in universities, declining support for "basic" research; and in both, a perceived lack of attention on the part of governments and the public to measures for the resolution of problems in the long term. These perceptions are analyzed in terms of changing attitudes to environment, research, and science policy from 1957 to 1976. Specific suggestions to improve the climate for research in DFE were: implementation of a policy on research; 3–5 year continuity in funding; standardized evaluation of programs; periodic evaluation of committees; filling research manager positions with scientists on a temporary basis; mechanisms to ensure adequate representation of national–international research (long term) interests. In universities there is a need for a shift in accent from individual to cooperative work, including graduate theses. A strategy needs to be developed within the research community to facilitate communication with the public and senior managers on long-term issues. Without an increase in the forces causing senior managers to be more responsive to the long term, the climate for research will remain as a perennial problem. This is because managers are conditioned by their role to think and act "short" in space and time, whereas scientists are conditioned by their role to think and act "long" in space and time. Development of an independent "scientific auditing" function, possibly coupled with existing financial auditing functions, is needed to improve the credibility of governments and industries in regard to resource interests that are "long" in space and time. Key words: climate for research, limnology, management, environment, Canada, long term, basic research, applied research

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