There was a program on our TV (20 years ago) about "Les Grands Travaux Inutiles" or GTI meaning the Big Useless Works or BUW.
Bridges would be built and then left alone without roads to join them.
The reason was artworks had to be built 5 years before completion and the roads needed 6 months of works before completion and therefore they started the artwork earlier while more and more protests came from local inhabitants who refused to have to move out or to have a noisy highway next doors, stopping the whole initiative.

Science programs first need to be imagined, then publicized then the teams formed and then comes the money.
Maybe a better way to match a decision with allowed money and time for it to be achieved is all that's needed.
The problem is the difference between what is proposed and what is possible. Plenty of science projects could be done but as they are not selected and there's no money for them anyway, it doesn't hurt.