Writing Feedback / Private entities nowadays seem to play a more prominent role in scientific activities [3]

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - IELTS Writing task 2

In today's world, private companies rather than the government pay for and conduct most scientific research. Do you think the advantages outweigh disadvantages?

Compared to the authorities, private entities nowadays seem to play a more prominent role in financially supporting and carrying out scientific activities. Although some might argue that this sort of studies should be conducted by the government, I would contend that the involvement of private corporations in the scientific field brings more benefits rather than drawbacks.

On the one hand, it is true that privately funded scientific investigations could exert several adverse impacts on society. While the rationale for the government's part in undertaking research is finding solutions to societal issues and improving the welfare of all citizens, private enterprises are more predisposed to profit motive. Therefore, results produced by these companies may be deliberately manipulated in order to maximise revenue. In fact, there have been numerous notorious cases regarding new products which are launched incautiously after inadequate trials. Furthermore, without governmental supervision, the excessive participation of big businesses in sensitive areas such as genetic engineering or nuclear military power would pose serious threats to the community.

However, since the scope of scientific activities is extremely diverse, I do believe that private companies can obviously do research which is not carried out by governments. It is undeniable that countless scientific breakthroughs have been represented by independent institutions and conglomerates. To cite an example, by developing new COVID-19 vaccines, Drugmaker Pfizer Incorporated has undoubtedly contributed remarkably to the global recovery from devastating impacts of the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic. Besides, encouraging individuals and the private sector to conduct scientific experiments would promote healthy competition and stimulate innovation in the marketplace. The public therefore can enjoy greater benefits from the latest inventions and better products.

In conclusion, despite entailing some risks, privately sponsored scientific research offers people enormous advantages. Of course, it is also important to explore strategies for designing multi-sector research collaborations that can generate reliable, high-quality results. For that reason, I suppose that this would be a positive movement provided that the government can scrutinise these private experiments in a thorough and efficient way.

PS Hi there, thank you so much for reading my essay and leaving comments so that I can improve it. I hope you guys can give me an estimated score because I'm gonna sit an IELTS exam this March. Have a good day!