In science ideas are like a currency and often better than money. A scientist is only as valuable as their NEXT idea. Yes, I said next idea.

Once the idea is made public it is no longer novel and loses value. If the idea is not patented it can be taken by anyone and changed to form a new concept or completely different idea. Even a patented idea can be changed and taken over by competitors.

“So what” you ask?

This idea currency phenomenon produces a paranoia amongst scientists. We do not want to share our ideas in publications, presentations or grant applications for fear of losing them. Let me address how this affects the grant writing and grant review process.

Say for example I’ve identified a protein switch that turns on a gene to kill cancer cells. Thus my research and idea could lead to a new cancer treatment. Maybe save thousands of lives some day. But when I write the grant to the nih on this subject I say something less clear. I propose to study the on / off ability of the protein switch. The control of the protein switch is suggested to be important in developing future therapies.

What is missing is how the gene is involved to kill cancer cells. There are lots and lots of protein switches and we often do not know what they do, so the key to the idea is that I have linked the switch to the gene to the cancer etc. That is my valuable idea and I want it to stay secret so I do not tell the NIH grant reviewers the whole story so they cannot steal it.

If I’m luck enough to get money from the federal government to do the research I might do some research on the gene step too, but still not make the idea public. Like many scientists I do this to protect my ideas. On the other hand if the grant proposal is not funded I might eventually be forced to disclose my idea. The problem is that with too radical an idea the grant proposals I submit are often not funded because I’m asking to prove it works.

Now, the Catch 22 (thank you Joseph Heller). Without funding I can’t prove my idea but without proving the idea works I will not be awarded funding. That is also why I try to not tell the whole story in a grant proposal to the NIH. Between concern for scientists taking good ideas, or not funding them if they are too new, the grant and funding system becomes a barrier to creativity.

So like a used car salesman I tell the powers that be what they want to hear and try to not give too much information.

Right now my colleagues and I have a radical new idea we want to try. I am not going to disclose it here obviously but it could be a big breakthrough. How do you think I am going to pay for this research work to be done?

Quite frankly it is so big we are going to try to fund it ourselves and keep it top secret for as long as possible. The general public suffers because of this. If I could trust funding agencies to help get the work funded and done I could engage more people in the form of research collaborators to get the work done faster. But as it is we will work quietly on the problem which means a new technology will be slower to reach the public.