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This article concludes with "The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.", does this impacts the availability of the research to other researchers
by brwnll 12y ago
This article concludes with "The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.", does this impacts the availability of the research to other researchers? Even with the University of Washington in my backyard, I hope the advancements in such an important field are shared as widely as possible.
On the fusion topic, energy.gov reports 63 active US Fusion Program Participants, and over 100 total (including gov't, private companies, international with US pressence)[1]. But last year the Boston Globe reported that MIT was shutting down, "The shutdown will leave only two fusion experiments in the United States, one at Princeton University and the other at General Atomics, a company in San Diego", due to a cutoff of federal funding.[2]
Anyone have any insight on the actual current state of fusion energy R&D in the U.S.?
[1] http://science.energy.gov/fes/research/fusion-institutions http://science.energy.gov/fes/research/fusion-institutions
[2] http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/05/19/fusion-energy-research-mit-shut-down-people-lose-their-jobs/x8CDMwik26faDd9FmwlrTO/story.html http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/05/19/fusion-energy-re...
- m0th87 12y agoHow this works depends on the department that's funding the research. With NSF/NIH grants, it's at the desecration of researchers on whether they want to apply IP rights. Other departments (mostly DoD) do contracts for research and own the IP afterward, but I'd bet DoE is in the former camp.
- jff 12y agoThe specific contract with the DoE may have defined ownership and distribution of the results, but in general it should be possible for the creators to get IP ownership from the DoE if for example they want to create a company around the technology.
- mng2 12y agoThe DOE actually provides research funding for most 'hard' sciences. Particle physics and supercomputing are primarily funded by DOE, for example. Unless it's classified, the research is open.
- elektronjunge 12y agoThe state of funding isn't great but off the top of my head I can name two locations doing lots experiments: University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics and The National Ignition Facility at Livermore National Labs. That Boston Globe article is likely referring to the type of fusion being researched at MIT.