The Second Academic Revolution: The Role of the Research University in Economic Development

John Ziman graphically portrays “steady state science” with images of river and battlefield. A river with ever narrowing banks represents the constriction of funding for academic science. A battlefield, with its wounded and dying, and only limited medical resources available, calls forth the image of a triage process in which those who are judged to be savable are rescued and removed from the battlefield while the others are left to die. Indeed, Ziman has described a funding decline in the United Kingdom accompanied by the establishment of a governmental evaluation procedure for departments, the closing down of some, the continuance of others-that is, narrowing banks and triage.