[영작 에세이] How to Make Research Grants Contribute to Good Working Condition

Science is deemed to work best when it sticks to a series of rational and logical works. However, science does not stand alone in the real world and hardly stay intact as a pure logical process since it is vulnerable to numerous factors. One of the factors is the research funding. Ideally, the goal of research funding is to pay for research when the researchers cannot cover up all the substantial costs on their own. It thereby ensures the financial stability of laborers in the research field and encourages their scientific activities. Among all the issues about research funding, I will focus on the research funding as one of the factors that forms the working condition in research field and its influence on researchers’ motivation to make scientific achievements. I will mainly zoom on the researchers and fund agencies in the 21th century around the world. I will examine several negative side effects with regards to over-reliance of research funding. Then, I will show which action funding agencies should take to make improvement in research funding and contribute to making better working environment for researchers. The terms ‘research funding’ and ‘research grant’ are frequently and alternatively used.