> With basic research, you often have to wait for decades before you can tell if the work was important or useful. But because funding needs to be available bef

> With basic research, you often have to wait for decades before you can tell if the work was important or useful. But because funding needs to be available before the work is done, you can't base funding decisions on the value of the work. I think you were right ten years ago, but a lot of new ways of doing things now change this paradigm.