It's the goverment that makes your country's budget, not the Scientific community. The politicians are qualified to determine which fields of research in general they want to fund(in fashion of "more money for medical research"). <br> <br>However, the categories should be broad enough that give the general idea of development, but not too well determined, as the politicians aren't qualified to tell which projects are the promising ones or are most likely to produce something good. Thus, it is left for the trained experts to decide, while people decides only the broad outlines they are competent enough to grasp. Decisions that need expertise to be good ones should be decided by experts instead of the ignorant majority.