Abstract
The rise of ‘big biology’ is bringing academic and industrial scientists together in large consortia to address translational challenges in the life sciences. In order to assess the impact of this change, this paper examines the existing norms and styles of collaboration in one high profile translational domain; stem cell research. Data is drawn from qualitative interviews with academic and industry scientists working in a large European stem cell research project. Respondents discussed what they perceived as the main benefits and risks of collaborative research, what styles of collaboration they were familiar with, and what collaborative work in stem cell science normally involves. A wide range of materials, data, and expertise can be exchanged during collaborative work. Informal collaborations are governed by an ethos of reciprocity and mediated by trust while formal project agreements can provide a safe space for sharing between unfamiliar partners. These characteristics make stem cell research well suited to pre-competitive public-private ventures but translation of new products to market may be more challenging.
Highlights
Large-scale public-private consortia are increasingly being employed to facilitate translational research in the life sciences (Lezaun 2013)
This paper aims to contribute to the burgeoning social science literature on ‘big biology’ (Calvert 2010; Davies et al 2013; Lezaun 2013; Vermeulen et al 2013) by exploring the potential impact of large public-private consortia in the field of stem cell research
There it’s more like ‘another pair of hands’” Established industry scientist (EIS) 3. This adds an additional dimension to the drivers of collaboration from an industry perspective; there is still a modular, skill and task-based division of labour, but standardised tasks are more likely to be outsourced to Contract Research Organisations (CROs) while more ‘exploratory’ open-ended or innovative research tasks tend to be allocated to academic collaborative partners. These findings suggest that collaborations in stem cell science arise as both a means to counter the limitations of increasing scientific specialisation and the need to access a variety of resources, from capital to data from external sources (Hallonsten 2014; Leahey and Reikowsky 2008)
Summary
Large-scale public-private consortia are increasingly being employed to facilitate translational research in the life sciences (Lezaun 2013). There are currently two IMI consortia in the stem cell field; Stem cells for Biological Assays of Novel drugs and prediCtive toxiCology (StemBANCC) and the European Bank for induced pluripotent Stem Cells (EBiSC). Both projects bring together multiple European universities and pharmaceutical companies to collaborate on developing stem cell technologies as a platform for Morrison Life Sciences, Society and Policy (2017) 13:7 drug discovery. In the case of StemBANCC this means production, characterisation, and dissemination of up to 1,500 induced pluripotent stem cell lines over 5 years
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