motivation.qmd

---
title: "Motivation"
description: Background and motivation for Work Package 1.
toc: false
---

## Academia lags far behind industry in many practical ways

Science, while pursuing cutting edge knowledge, lags far behind industry
in standard operational, organisational, and technological practices,
tools, and methods. For example, there are nearly no research software
or data engineers within research groups or institutions, even though
software and data are foundational components to conducting research in
the modern era.

Traditional management of larger scale research projects often involves
setting up steering committees who check on progress through status
updates and discuss solutions to issues that arise. However, there are
many modern tools and methods used within industry that research
environments and projects could benefit from, such as data engineering,
software development, and operations management.

Likewise, basic modern communication and project management tools are
rarely, if ever, used within research environments, even though they are
standard practice in many corporate settings. If these things are used
by some groups, they are not shared nor advertised through traditional
scientific publications, so if they exist, others can't reuse and learn
from each other to improve how we do research.

## Science needs more team-based, collaborative approaches

Science is also increasingly moving into more team-based, multi-centered
enterprises, as well as having a greater requirement for openness and
reproducibility. These require using modern practices designed for these
conditions, rarely seen in academia but common within many industry
settings.

Ultimately, academia needs to recognize and incorporate these practices
in order to stay relevant and competitive in the modern research
landscape. But we need more funds, support, awareness, and training to
make this happen.

This is what Work Package 1 aims to help address.