6.5 Serendipity counts
Whilst carefully posed research questions are the main drivers of scientific progress, serendipity is often overlooked as part of research. In long-term environmental observation, this may include capturing extreme events (e.g. floods (Soulsby et al., 2017a) or droughts (Soulsby et al., 2021)) which offer new insights that would have been difficult to anticipate. Also, visitors to the site have brought fresh ideas, knowledge and experience that have resulted in collaborations and step changes in understanding. Even painful mistakes and errors provide opportunities where new ideas and conceptualisations emerge. There is a danger if research programmes become too tightly controlled and highly constrained as budgets tighten, and many benefits will be lost without the potential for serendipity and the ability to engage with other researchers.