Career Advice
Special Feature: Business Financing for Your Research
By
Alan Kotok
March 14, 2008
Scientists at academic institutions usually turn to
government and foundations for money to do their research, and for
good reason: These sources provide the bulk of the funding for
academic research. But the fluctuating federal research budgets of
recent years, in Europe and Japan as well as the United States,
have given researchers reasons to go looking for alternative
funding sources.
Business spends more money on
research and development than the public and academic sectors
combined (bar chart at left). But only a small proportion of that
investment reaches academic researchers. In 2006, according to
figures compiled by the U.S. National Science Foundation, industry
spent $2.4 billion
at U.S. academic institutions . That's just 5% of total funding
for academic research (pie chart), but it's still a nice chunk of
change.
|
Speaking of change: That number hasn't changed much over time,
in either direction. Businesses have roughly maintained their
levels of academic research support (in current dollars) since
1999, declining only slightly in the years of slow economic growth
that followed the 2001 recession (bar chart at right). Level
funding (or a small decline) doesn't sound impressive in an era
when researchers aspire to doubling research budgets, but steady
private-sector funding can provide a small cushion given the ups
and downs of federal support for science.
Researchers who want to tap into this funding source should note
that businesses often use different methods for engaging academic
researchers. They also have different expectations, and maintain
different kinds of working relationships with their academic
collaborators, than governments and foundations.
Elisabeth Pain , our contributing editor for southern
Europe, deals with the possibly sticky ethical and practical issues
that are part of the deal when you accept research funding from
profit-seeking entities.
|
|
|
How do academic scientists get started in their search for
industry financing? Science writer
Siri Carpenter describes how businesses find and select
academic researchers, and how academic researchers can improve
their chances of getting found.
|
Listen to more about industry support for research
...
Hear more about business financing for research in the academic
world on this week's Science podcast
. [
Listen to MP3 ]
|
|
Alan Kotok is managing editor ofScienceCareers.
|
Comments, suggestions? Please send your feedback to our editor .
|
|
Image. Top: Images.com/Corbis
|
DOI: 10.1126/science.caredit.a0800038
|