Most research is based around understanding the universe. Often called Blue Sky research (Why is the sky blue?).
Now that’s a very broad category, so you break things down into something more manageable. Like the lifecycle of a specific insect, or the behavior of crowds in shopping centers during holidays.
The point being that you can absolutely tell someone what to research.
Now, you are correct in that you cannot dictate the results of research.
Except that you can, and it’s the second type of research.
Goal oriented research, or maybe practical research? starts with a goal or a problem. Like a disease. The goal is a cure or prevention. How you get to that point doesn’t matter as long as you do, but in practice the way to meeting that goal is going to be more research centered around understanding the goal or problem.
Now, all that said, pure Blue Sky research has a guaranteed return on investment. NASA estimates that their return is 3-1. 3 dollars back for every dollar of their budget.
All that said, there is no ethical reason to constrain research topics or even to reduce spending on science.
That’s not exactly how it works.
Most research is based around understanding the universe. Often called Blue Sky research (Why is the sky blue?).
Now that’s a very broad category, so you break things down into something more manageable. Like the lifecycle of a specific insect, or the behavior of crowds in shopping centers during holidays.
The point being that you can absolutely tell someone what to research.
Now, you are correct in that you cannot dictate the results of research.
Except that you can, and it’s the second type of research.
Goal oriented research, or maybe practical research? starts with a goal or a problem. Like a disease. The goal is a cure or prevention. How you get to that point doesn’t matter as long as you do, but in practice the way to meeting that goal is going to be more research centered around understanding the goal or problem.
Now, all that said, pure Blue Sky research has a guaranteed return on investment. NASA estimates that their return is 3-1. 3 dollars back for every dollar of their budget.
All that said, there is no ethical reason to constrain research topics or even to reduce spending on science.