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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 rese
by 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 agoBefore 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 agoYour 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?