Tom Levenson has an interesting idea:
A Modest Proposal: A Science Initiative for the Obama Administration
But I'd like to lay down one relatively cheap marker that would, I think, have a significant impact on both the culture and the productivity of American scientific research to a degree disproportionate to the underlying amount of dollars. It's not a new idea, and hardly original to me -but seeing as it has been completely out of court for almost a decade, I think it bears repeating, even if it is old news to veterans of the business.
In this post, I laid out a first marker for what the new administration could do for science, calling for an expansion of support for young scientists and engineers -- grad students, post docs and new principal investigators.
For the new PIs, I suggested an increase in the number and shift in the emphasis of what are now called Faculty Early Career Development Program grants, arguing that the availability of no-strings attached discretionary research funds for young scholars would have a disproportionate bang for the buck.
Read both posts (and comments) in their entirety. What do you think?