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I recently read an interview with Eric Schmidt discussing how companies can't afford to spend money on fundamental research because it doesn't contribute to the

I recently read an interview with Eric Schmidt discussing how companies can't afford to spend money on fundamental research because it doesn't contribute to the bottom line. Since any public companies only responsibility is to produce a profit for shareholders. He seemed to want universities doing R&D with government money. I would prefew the government not get involved with funding research to be used by the private sector (libertarian tendencies?) but I don't see any other way around the lack of R&D.

old-gregg 18y ago
But I don't see any other way around the lack of R&D. A perceived possibility of an alien invasion. I'm serial (c). The Cold War sent us to space and gave us Internet and Lisp machines, while wars on drugs and terrorism don't scare anyone enough to pour more money into fundamental science. Aliens, I'm telling you.
bbgm 18y ago
In some industries, e.g. life science, publicly funded academic research forms the vast majority of the R part of R&D. The models for commercializing this research need some work, but with the risks associated, long time spans and the sheer diversity of researchers required, it will be very difficult for commercial companies to actually do the basic research. They are much better placed to take a promising project or two and then drill down. One more point - I am not sure just volume of papers is a good measure. In the ideal situation, that should be going down if we manage to somehow ween ourselves away from the publish or perish model.
- timr 18y ago
  Before Bayh-Dole allowed universities to commercialize their federally funded research, companies had no trouble doing in-house R&D. They made it a reasonable part of their budgets because they had to do so, if they wanted to exclusively profit from their inventions. Thanks to Bayh-Dole, University research is far more commercial, companies have slashed or eliminated their research budgets, and it's harder for scientists to get jobs. The private sector doesn't feel the need to pay for R&D, when the universities will do it on the government's dime.
- jacoblyles 18y ago
  Your comment surprises me. I see a lot of startups in San Diego doing research into gene sequencing techniques and bioinformatics. I would think that life sciences, with the might of the pharmaceutical and agriculture industries behind it, would have the most private funding. On the other hand, I always thought that physics would have the least private funding. I have no facts, but that would be my suspicion. Am I wrong?

old-gregg 18y ago

But I don't see any other way around the lack of R&D. A perceived possibility of an alien invasion. I'm serial (c). The Cold War sent us to space and gave us Internet and Lisp machines, while wars on drugs and terrorism don't scare anyone enough to pour more money into fundamental science. Aliens, I'm telling you.

bbgm 18y ago

In some industries, e.g. life science, publicly funded academic research forms the vast majority of the R part of R&D. The models for commercializing this research need some work, but with the risks associated, long time spans and the sheer diversity of researchers required, it will be very difficult for commercial companies to actually do the basic research. They are much better placed to take a promising project or two and then drill down. One more point - I am not sure just volume of papers is a good measure. In the ideal situation, that should be going down if we manage to somehow ween ourselves away from the publish or perish model.

timr 18y ago
Before Bayh-Dole allowed universities to commercialize their federally funded research, companies had no trouble doing in-house R&D. They made it a reasonable part of their budgets because they had to do so, if they wanted to exclusively profit from their inventions. Thanks to Bayh-Dole, University research is far more commercial, companies have slashed or eliminated their research budgets, and it's harder for scientists to get jobs. The private sector doesn't feel the need to pay for R&D, when the universities will do it on the government's dime.
jacoblyles 18y ago
Your comment surprises me. I see a lot of startups in San Diego doing research into gene sequencing techniques and bioinformatics. I would think that life sciences, with the might of the pharmaceutical and agriculture industries behind it, would have the most private funding. On the other hand, I always thought that physics would have the least private funding. I have no facts, but that would be my suspicion. Am I wrong?