Industry-funded university research

Industry-funded university research of the 1920 s and 30 s was dominated by foundation philanthrophy, driven by the attitude that corporate funds should be used solely to benefit mankind and that the academic mission must remain uncompromised by anything but a "strict" division between its research function and the industrial laboratory. The postwar years of the 1940 s and 50 s saw a boom in government funding for research. These funds, however, began to encourage corporate-university alliances, while maintaining a separate academic research entity, a trend which continued into the 70 s. 

The increasing level of industry-sponsored university research can be partly understood by the environment which has amplified its value to both partners. Industry has been under increasing pressure to rationalize its research and recover costs from its operating units, resulting in an intensified focus of its in-house resources on applied R D. Universities, on the other hand, are feeling the effects of federal deficit reductions, which create the need to seek alternate sources of funding. 

The basic research in our fields is now done largely in universities. It can have incredibly important practical results, but those results cannot normally be predicted in advance. Who would have thought that the basic study of induced energy emission from excited states of atoms and molecules that led to the laser would wind up giving us a better way to record music, or read supermarket prices Would a music company have funded that research Who would have thought that our increased understanding of the chemistry of life would have led to the creation of biotechnology as an entirely new industry The industry that benefited from the basic research could not have funded it, since it did not yet exist. 

ISO has two important functions in analytical chemistry. The first is to publish descriptions of accepted methods. These are effectively industry standard methods for particular protocols. The second is in laboratory accreditation. For a laboratory to be ISO accredited, compliance with international QA standards must be confirmed by an initial assessment and subsequently from repeated audits by an independent assessor. Since ISO has no legal or regulatory powers, the standards are voluntary. It is unlikely, however, that a forensic analysis which did not conform to an ISO standard would be upheld in court, for example. Most commercial laboratories need to be accredited to remain competitive and to deal with regulatory authorities. Most university labs are not accredited, mainly due to the time and costs involved, and also to the nonroutine nature of much university research. However, university accreditation may become a requirement in the near future, especially for publicly funded research in the UK. The details of laboratory accreditation are discussed by Christie et al. (1999) and Dobb (2004). 

Another barrier to the industry-academia relationship is the if it s not broken, why fix it mentality. Presently, many universities are quite well supported by government research funding. There is a fear that stronger ties to industry would compromise the current direction of university research and, worse, could even compromise scholarly pursuits. 

Bernard Mark Heron was born in Workington, England in 1965. After graduation (GRSC) from Lancashire Polytechnic (Preston) in 1987 and a brief period in industry he obtained his PhD (CNAA) in Benzothiopyran Chemistry in 1992 under the supervision of Professor John Hepworth at the University of Central Lancashire. A postdoctoral fellowship in heterocyclic chemistry (1992-95) and an industrially funded lectureship at Central Lancashire (1995-98) were followed by appointment to a James Robinson Lectureship at the University of Hull (1998-2000). Dr. Heron was appointed as a senior lecturer (2000-present) in the Department of Colour and Polymer Chemistry at the University of Leeds. His research interests include the chemistry and applications of heterocyclic compounds, color chemistry, and organic photo- and thermochromic materials. 

Those consequences are now with us. Universities have been obliged to seek funds from industry, university researchers have been required to obtain money from industry, and commercial firms conduct their own vast programmes. The result is that it is now quite difficult to find wholly independent scientists many of the most expert scientists in any field are funded by an interested party in that field. Where does one then go for independent advice Even freedom to publish may be constrained or delayed, to preserve commercial advantage for the funder. 

Figure 5.3 gives the breakdown of industry funding for academic research ranging from basic to applied to development. It shows that industry does not go to universities to conduct work downstream of research (i.e., development work is not the university s strength). When we have a pilot scale or when we do further applied work, we do that primarily in-house. 

The goal of the university researcher will be to acquire new knowledge, obtain funding for laboratory research and secure material for publication. The profit motive and the development and acquisition of exclusive rights in new products and processes are usually the objectives of an industrial research sponsor or licensor. 

---