Competition: our constant companion

Competition is at the heart of every step we make during our careers as research scientists. We first compete for a place in a laboratory to carry out our PhD research. We then compete for postdoctoral fellowships. And as heads of laboratories, in a way that is perhaps unique to research, we compete for funds to finance the experiments performed in our laboratories. It is not an exaggeration to state that competition is a constant companion of the research scientist.In other walks of life there is, of course, a lot of competition too. The more customers a dental, legal, medical or engineering practice attracts, the more money their owners earn. In some fields, the competition to get a place at a good university or a position at a good practice takes place mainly at an earlier stage in the career. For instance, a national health system will provide physicians at a hospital with the materials and instruments they need once they have been appointed. But for us research …