Navigating the Poly-Crisis: Assessing the Health and Future of Science
Written version of the opening remarks delivered at the JRC Science Week opening, November 2025.
Prof. Jean-Claude Burgelman
Editor-in-Chief of the Frontiers Policy Labs
Published on January 30th, 2026
The question of science's health today elicits a complex, multi-faceted answer. While some voices lean towards catastrophism, a sober assessment reveals a vibrant, expanding enterprise alongside significant, often interlinked, challenges. Science, however, faces its own poly-crisis, deeply embedded within – and yet crucial to overcoming – the broader global turmoil.
Science on the Rise: A Story of Global Growth and Opportunity
Let's begin by challenging the notion of a declining science. By many metrics, science is thriving. The global academy is a reality, expanding dramatically in terms of universities, scientists, funding, and publications. Countries like China now contribute massively to global research output, including in quality and in doing so leveraging the immense potential of 1.4 billion brains.
This globalization of scientific endeavor presents unprecedented opportunities for collaboration, diverse perspectives, and accelerated discovery, demonstrating science's incredible resilience and adaptive capacity. Far from being in decline, the sheer scale and reach of scientific activity today are unparalleled in human history.
The Underbelly: Endogenous and Exogenous Challenges
Despite this impressive expansion, science is not without its ailments, stemming from both internal dynamics and external pressures.
Internal Struggles: Within the scientific community, a "long tail of excesses" persists. The publication system, often driven by the predominant, and sometimes distorting, influence of the impact factor, can lead to perverse incentives. There's also a growing question of relevance. As one president of the EIC starkly put it at a Frontiers workshop, "I am fed up getting funding proposals regarding how to make rich white people living beyond 100 years." This highlights a concern that a significant portion of research may not adequately address the most pressing global challenges of today, such as planetary health or societal inequalities. The rise of private science also shifts dynamics, potentially influencing research agendas and accessibility.
External Pressures: Externally, science faces today a troubling, though not universal, denial of its value and a pervasive distrust in some of its uses. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing climate crisis have vividly illustrated how scientific consensus can be questioned, politicized, or outright dismissed by segments of the public and political leaders. This erosion of trust, while not universal, poses a significant threat to evidence-based policymaking and public understanding.
Science in Danger: Emerging Threats to its Integrity and Accessibility
Beyond these ongoing struggles, more existential threats loom, placing science itself in precarious positions.
Geopolitical Instrumentalization: Science is increasingly being instrumentalized in geopolitics. Concepts of "sovereignty" are sometimes invoked to restrict international collaboration, and research can become a tool in power struggles, as seen in various trade and tech disputes. This politicization risks fragmenting the global scientific community and hindering the free exchange of ideas, which is vital for progress.
Barriers to Access: A foundational principle of science is the open sharing of knowledge. Yet, a staggering 60% of scientific publications remain behind paywalls, creating a significant barrier to access, particularly for researchers in less affluent regions, SMEs, or the general public. Compounding this, a majority of scientific data is not FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), limiting its utility and potential for further discovery.
The AI Frontier: The advent of Artificial Intelligence presents a double-edged sword. Data is often termed "the new oil" for AI and science, powering profound new insights. However, this also means that access to data, once a somewhat given expectation, may no longer be universally assured. Control over vast datasets could become a source of power and influence, potentially exacerbating existing inequalities in scientific research and hindering open innovation.
Conclusion: Science's Dual Imperative in a Poly-Crisis World
In essence, science faces its own "poly-crisis": it is grappling with endogenous challenges to its relevance and modus operandi, while simultaneously being affected by the complex, interconnected global crises of our world.
Yet, science remains absolutely essential to navigating and ultimately resolving these very poly-crises.
The coming two decades present a dual imperative for science:
Robustness of the New Modus Operandi: Science must ensure that its rapidly changing, digitally-driven, data-intensive, and machine-powered modus operandi becomes as robust, reliable, and transparent as the science 1.0 it builds upon. This requires addressing issues of data integrity, algorithmic bias, and equitable access to advanced tools and resources.
Regaining Global Undisputed Authority: In a world that appears less inherently science-friendly than ever, science must actively work to regain and solidify its global, undisputed authority. This means enhancing its trustworthiness, demonstrating its relevance to pressing societal needs, fostering open communication, and proactively engaging with the public and policymakers.
The future health of science – and indeed, the health of our planet – hinges on effectively addressing these critical challenges while leveraging the immense opportunities that the global scientific enterprise offers.
Copyright: © 2025 [author(s)]. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in Frontiers Policy Labs is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
