I think we solve this problems not through finding a universal approach, but through heterogeneity.
We fund academic work because we see value in it. But there are many kinds of value, and many different sorts of value. So I think it's appropriate that we have many different universities which have many different departments. Many different funding agencies and many different foundations. Each group has their own heuristics for picking the seed experts.
There are still systemic biases, of course, but that's true of any approach. And distributed power is much more robust to that then centralized power or a single homogeneous system.
We fund academic work because we see value in it. But there are many kinds of value, and many different sorts of value. So I think it's appropriate that we have many different universities which have many different departments. Many different funding agencies and many different foundations. Each group has their own heuristics for picking the seed experts.
There are still systemic biases, of course, but that's true of any approach. And distributed power is much more robust to that then centralized power or a single homogeneous system.