Failure Isn’t Final: Normalizing Setbacks to Accelerate Science

An editorial arguing that failure is intrinsic to science and must be normalized within funding, publishing, and career systems. It calls for reforms such as recognizing work in progress and unsuccessful experiments, adopting formats like Registered Reports, and expanding institutional support to help researchers learn from setbacks; it also criticizes policies like the ERC’s discouragement of reapplications, urging a culture that treats doubt and failure as essential to scientific progress.