The Nurse review is a topography of the minutiae of the research landscape, a history of the state we’re in, and a study of how public bureaucracies clash in unproductive and unhelpful ways.
Nurse makes clear that at its heart science is an administrative endeavour. It is about breakthroughs, experimentation, and shining a light into uncertainty but it is also about the judicious use of public funds, audits, form-filling, accountability, and careful record taking. It can be slow, made slower by processes, and made slower still when processes clash. Some of this administration is imposed by funders, some by government, and some by universities and researchers themselves.
There is no perfect system. The price for less bureaucracy can be less equity and oversight. More freedom for individuals can mean less organisational capacity. And the price of carrying out a high quantity of research is also to undertake a large amount of administration.
The administrative system is a set of management structures, sign offs, regulators, and funders, but it is also a set of incentives that people within the system respond to.
