Skip the Agenda Building: Let the Wisdom of the Crowd Drive a Dynamic Tapestry of Science

The Netherlands has recently conducted a broad popular survey in which the public were invited to submit online suggestions for the research questions and themes that they deem important. We applaud the idea of letting the public participate in a societal reflection on research priorities. The greater the number of participants and the broader their representation, the smaller the odds of mising relevant and important research areas. It helps science escape the trap of the ivory tower and reduces the risk of scientific tunnel vision. We therefore embrace the notion of stimulating a dialogue between the scientific community and the public. At the same time, we are wary of directing the public’s energy towards the subsequent definition of a national science agenda to prioritize research themes. Science agendas that prioritize particular research areas are inevitably susceptible to bias and do not mitigate the widely perceived issues of how we presently prioritize and fund research. In our view this is a missed opportunity to really leverage the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ and make necessary improvements towards a more efficient, transparent, and equitable science funding system.