Blue Skies Research and the global economy

Robert Solowʹs seminal work of the 1950s showed that science and technology are major sources of long-term global economic growth. But we have recently changed the ways that science and technology are managed. Industrial and academic research once thrived on individual freedom and flair. Progressively for the past three decades or so, however, research has been focused on short-term objectives selected by consensus. Global per-capita growth has steadily declined. Scientific enterprise is losing diversity. Blue Skies Research can help to restore diversity and to create the new technologies that can stimulate growth, but funding agencies nowadays rarely allow total freedom. A new coefficient of adventurousness is described. Its use, or other means, may help restore economic growth to its former levels.