National large-scale interdisciplinary research programmes funded to boost scientific, economic and societal advancement often have difficulty realizing their goals. Reasons include: the monodisciplinary nature of academic research; insufficient interaction with societal actors; and funding...

This paper presents a framework to study the historical development of the relationship between science and society. We elaborate this relationship as a contract that specifies the mission of scientific research, the rationales for public support for science, and the conditions under which...