Failure is a part of science, and treating it as a taboo ultimately harms the scientific community, according to a recent Nature editorial. As an example, the editors point to the European Research Council’s recent decision to discourage unsuccessful applicants from reapplying for grant funding, which they say amounts to a message of: “don’t bother learning from failure, because second chances will be limited.” While several initiatives exist to support failures in addition to successes, these initiatives are not yet common. To encourage learning and growth from failure, the article encourages academia to introduce methods of assessing failure and encourage early-career colleagues to “think beyond the idea of ‘standing on the shoulders of giants.’”
