Five years (left to cry in)

There are periodic evaluations, but a poor result means losing only a fraction of your funding, says Schuman, who previously held one of the plum positions in U.S. science: as an investigator funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute on a 5-year contract. “I did not realize how the renewal clock of 5 years dissuaded me from going for risky ideas until I became a Max Planck director,” she says.

Cue, David Bowie: