> But science is basically saying "we trust you to find something worthwhile. Go saunter"
Not... quite.
Typically, scientist in academia are underfunded and overloaded with teaching and management duties. The way to get round to actual research is to hire phd students / postdocs. But there is no institutional funding, so you have to write a grant proposal. Since every academic is in the same boat, project calls are swamped with proposals and can only funds 10-20%. Since you want to get funding, you create a very clear project proposal with detailed timeline of expected publications. Because funders don't award mediocrity, your proposal is ambitious in this.
Now if you get the funding, you suddenly have a significant, detailed, ambitious research obligation to fulfil for the next #PhD years. You get to do research, but there's not much leeway.
No project funding? Here are stacks of committee work and teaching load. Oh, but we do expect you to keep publishing actively. Maybe make time on the evenings and weekends for research?
Not... quite.
Typically, scientist in academia are underfunded and overloaded with teaching and management duties. The way to get round to actual research is to hire phd students / postdocs. But there is no institutional funding, so you have to write a grant proposal. Since every academic is in the same boat, project calls are swamped with proposals and can only funds 10-20%. Since you want to get funding, you create a very clear project proposal with detailed timeline of expected publications. Because funders don't award mediocrity, your proposal is ambitious in this.
Now if you get the funding, you suddenly have a significant, detailed, ambitious research obligation to fulfil for the next #PhD years. You get to do research, but there's not much leeway.
No project funding? Here are stacks of committee work and teaching load. Oh, but we do expect you to keep publishing actively. Maybe make time on the evenings and weekends for research?
All in all, not really "go saunter".