Opinion: Research funding is broken. Using a lottery approach could fix it
Thirty years ago, Katalin Karikó had what was then an outlandish idea: use messenger RNA as a medicine. But getting funding to demonstrate that might be possible was impossible, despite three decades of trying. One rejection she might now be able to laugh about was a research opportunity with funding for six scientists. It received seven applications — Karikó’s was the only one that wasn’t funded.
Her outlandish idea has since provided the platform for the vaccines that are helping protect people around the world from Covid-19 and is being used to develop other treatments. Karikó has since won multiple prizes and could even win a Nobel Prize.
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