Using old ideas

Research grant proposals always have to be new or they aren't really research. But there are so many ideas out in the world already that aren't being used. What we really need to do is get these old ideas in use. For example I put an image registration algorithm in a diagnostic radiology image viewer to align radiology images. The radiologists loved it because it was fast, simple to use, and streamlined their work.  Something like that is useful but not new enough to receive research funding. Unfortunately most new research probably doesn't get used for years or even decades because it is too difficult to use and researchers can't get the resources to make it available since they are quickly off to start something new. Only the researchers involved know enough about it to implement it for common use but the researchers need to go on to work on something completely new.

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