In my opinion, scholars and researchers should be encouraged to pursue the interests, as long as their interests have no potrntial harm to the society.
In the first place, when encouraged to pursue their interests, scholars and researchers are more likely to make great contributions to the larger society. For instance, the Theory of Relativity which led the physics into a new time, was advanced by Albert Einstein, who was only pursuing his interest on theoretical research. In addition, Mendal spent eight years to observe the genetic characters of the pea by the stimulation of his interest, becoming the first to suggest the existence of the Laws of Heredity, which laid the foundation the modern genetics. Moreover, both the researches of Einstein and Mendal are beyond their contemperaries, which seemed even unusual and idiosyncratic. Therefore, scholars and scientists should be encouraged to pursue their interest, which is likely to bring about improvements on science and technology.
On the contrary, when scholars and scientists are not encouraged to pursue their personnal interests, it's less likely to make significant discoveries and inventions. The current situation of Chinese academia is a good case in point. Chinese scholars and researchers are not supported or encouraged to pursue their own interests. Instead, they do research which are aimed to make contribution the society, on the stimulus of by financial benefits, despite their dislikeness. This is why Chinese academia rarely makes significant contribution to the improvement of science and technology. With too much focus on whether their research can benefit the society, scholars and scientists will have less passion and let their talents wasted. So it is unwise to ask the scholars and scientists to concern with whether their work makes a contributionn to the larger society. Instead, the pursuit of their individual interests should be encouraged, even if sometimes those interests might seem unusual or idiosyncratic to others.
However, when the scholars and scientists' individual interests show potential problems or harm to the society, they should be discouraged or even forbidden. For example, many scientists are strongly interested in human cloning which is banned by the government. The reason is that human cloning may cause severe problems of ethics and morality. Thus the pursuit of personal intersts of scholars and scientists should not always be encouraged. They should be sure that their work will bring no harm to the society. In sum, the pursuit of individual intersts of scholars and scientists will usually contribute to the larger society and should be encouraged. However, when their work may cause potential severe harm or problems to society, it should be limited.