I put up a poll asking readers what the single most important issue is today for the future of science. You can still vote.
Going into this I thought “funding” would come out of top, but instead by a large margin readers voiced most concern over the anti-science climate in the U.S. It really is a serious concern when science is under attack by many political leaders and so few everyday Americans can identify important scientists.
Tied for second were funding and interestingly, open access publishing. It seems to me that journal publishers could be in for a tough future, but for all you pro-open access folks out there, don’t underestimate the publishers as your adversaries. They’ll fight you tooth and nail. Don’t forget the Research Works Act….
I also found it interesting that translating science into for-profit ventures registered 5th. Then tied for sixth were ethics and pre-college science education.
I don’t know how things fare at the international level… but at the national one, here in Spain the biggest issue is funding. The goverment has trimmed R&D funding a lot, and they weren’t very generous beforehand, either. I think it’s a disaster at the not-so-long term. A developed country needs research to keep developing. Choking it down as part of these misguided funding-trims policies is like selling the car in order to buy gasoline.