Research council launches 100m kroner fund as Norwegian government calls for the protection of academic freedom
Norway has launched a new scheme to lure top international researchers amid growing pressure on academic freedom in the US under the Trump administration.
Following in the footsteps of multiple institutions across Europe, the Research Council of Norway on Wednesday launched a 100m kroner (£7.2m) fund to make it easier to recruit researchers from other countries.
The initiative is open to researchers from around the world, but it was expanded and accelerated after the Trump administration announced substantial cuts last month.
Is scheme a devious word to you?
I’ve honestly never heard it used in a way that doesn’t imply “bad”.
Bad guys scheme, good guys plan.
So it’s never used as a noun?
Yeah, but only in a negative, bad guy, context.
It is but with inherent negative connotations.
One schemes to get away with shady shit but plans to do good things.
It is used as a noun in the US, but its use as such is not nearly as common as words like, “initiative,” “plan,” or, “program,” in this context.
That is a US versus UK difference! In UK English it is simply a synonym for a program or policy, whereas in US English it implies something negative, often underhanded!
For instance:
🇺🇸 The scammers were running a scheme to trick people.
🇺🇸 Some consider cryptocurrency to be a scheme where one sells, leaving others holding the bag.
🇬🇧 Paying into the national pension scheme ensures you’ll receive a payment upon retirement.
🇬🇧 The company has introduced a new scheme allowing employees to work from home.
We’ve had a Color Coding Scheme here for years, and no one bats an eyelid at those words even though it could be horrifying for someone in the US.
What “Color Coding Scheme” meant in this context
It’s basically a ban on vehicles from driving along major roads and highways in our largest metropolitan area based on the last digit of their license plates:
Fun fact: the protocol part of each URL (http/https at the start) is officially called the scheme too. So I guess technically you scheme every time you click a link.
And then there’s the whole scheme language. With PLT Scheme’s main dialect of the language sufficiently deviating from the standard, they renamed themselves to Racket.
Mueh-heh-heeeh…(Click)…(rubs hands together while it loads)
‘Scheme’ has that connotation in the US, yeah.
I know publications outside the US use it in a much more neutral manner, but it’s funny to us.
I think you use the word program in its place. But it’s always been scheme to everyone else in the world.
Even though I know it’s innocent elsewhere, something like “retirement scheme” still suggests some kind of Last Big Heist to me.
That’s interesting. I’m also in the US and have never heard it used in this context before. Learned something new!
This is true. When I was a young salesman, I once took offense at a British client referring to the program I was selling as a scheme. My boss had to explain to me that he meant no offense, the meaning is slightly different outside of the US, where it is simply a synonyn for a program or plan, and doesn’t carry the same American nuance as being nefarious.
That is a US versus UK difference! In UK English it is simply a synonym for a program or policy, whereas in US English it implies something negative, often underhanded!
For instance:
🇺🇸 The scammers were running a scheme to trick people.
🇺🇸 Some consider cryptocurrency to be a scheme where one sells, leaving others holding the bag.
🇬🇧 Paying into the national pension scheme ensures you’ll receive a payment upon retirement.
🇬🇧 The company has introduced a new scheme allowing employees to work from home.
scheme , the term is always used as some obfuscated, convoluted way to do something.