Public-private Research Collaboration Research Articles

Drivers of academic engagement in public–private research collaboration: an empirical study

University-industry research collaboration is one of the major research policy priorities of advanced economies. In this study, we try to identify the main drivers that could influence the propensity of academics to engage in research collaborations with the private sector, in order to better inform policies and initiatives to foster such collaborations. At this purpose, we apply an inferential model to a dataset of 32,792 Italian professors in order to analyze the relative impact of individual and contextual factors affecting the propensity of academics to engage in collaboration with industry, at overall level and across disciplines. The outcomes reveal that the typical profile of the professor collaborating with industry is a male under age 40, full professor, very high performer, with highly diversified research, and who has a certain tradition in collaborating with industry. This professor is likely to be part of a staff used to collaborating with industry, in a small university, typically a polytechnic, located in the north of the country.

Suborning science for profit: Monsanto, glyphosate, and private science research misconduct

Using documents from a lawsuit filed against the agricultural chemical and biotechnology firm Monsanto (now Bayer), we document a private firm's efforts to distort the scientific peer-review process through ghostwriting, to orchestrate campaigns to retract journal articles, and to influence editorial decisions. The firm's apparent goal was to manipulate the regulatory process so that it could continue selling a product that the firm's own research indicated might be dangerous. The long-term impact has been to threaten the integrity of scientific peer review and public trust in science. The findings have implications for public-private research collaborations, the validity of private-science research, scientific journal policies on conflict-of-interest disclosures, and policies governing the role of private science in regulatory oversight.

Public–private research collaborations: Longitudinal field‐level analysis of determinants, frequency, and impact

AbstractThis study on public–private research collaboration measures the variation over time of the propensity of academics to collaborate with colleagues from private companies. It also investigates the change in weights of the main drivers underlying the academics’ propensity to collaborate, and whether the type profile of the collaborating academics changes. To do this, the study applies an inferential model on a dataset of professors working in Italian universities in consecutive periods, 2010–2013 and 2014–2017. The results, obtained at overall and field levels, support the formulation of policies aimed at fostering public–private research collaborations, and should be taken into account in postassessment of their effectiveness.

Promoting Breastfeeding and Interaction of Pediatric Associations With Providers of Nutritional Products.

Pediatric associations have been urged not to interact with and not to accept support from commercial providers of breast milk substitutes (BMSs), based on the assumption that such interaction would lead to diminished promotion and support of breastfeeding. The leadership of seven European pediatric learned societies reviewed the issue and share their position and policy conclusions here. We consider breastfeeding as the best way of infant feeding and strongly encourage its active promotion, protection, and support. We support the World Health Organization (WHO) Code of Marketing of BMSs. Infant formula and follow-on formula for older infants should not be advertised to families or the public, to avoid undermining breastfeeding. With consistently restricted marketing of BMSs, families need counseling on infant feeding choices by well-informed pediatricians. Current and trustworthy information is shared through congresses and other medical education directed and supervised by independent pediatric organizations or public bodies. Financial support from commercial organizations for congresses, educational, and scientific activities of pediatric organizations is an acceptable option if scientific, ethical, societal, and legal standards are followed; any influence of commercial organizations on the program is excluded, and transparency is ensured. Public–private research collaborations for improving and evaluating pharmaceuticals, vaccines, medical devices, dietetic products, and other products and services for children are actively encouraged, provided they are guided by the goal of enhancing child health and are performed following established high standards. We support increasing investment of public funding for research aiming at promoting child health, as well as for medical education.

The Partnership for Accelerating Cancer Therapies.

As a part of the Cancer Moonshot, the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, the Foundation for National Institutes of Health, the US Food and Drug Administration, and 12 pharmaceutical companies have formed a 5-year, $220 million precompetitive public-private research collaboration called the Partnership for Accelerating Cancer Therapies. A systematic cross-sector effort to identify and develop robust, standardized biomarkers and related clinical data, Partnership for Accelerating Cancer Therapies will support the selection and testing of promising immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, with the goal of bringing effective therapy to more patients.

Reconsidering the Exemption for Educational and Research Establishments Under the Directive on Re-Use of Public Sector Information (2003/98/EC; 2013/37/EU) Possible Ways and Legal Consequences

The article discusses the possibilities of including public research and educational establishments within the scope of the Directive regulating the re-use of public sector information (‘PSI Directive’). It subsequently evaluates the legal consequences of such an inclusion. Focusing on scientific information, the analysis connects the long-standing debates about open access and open education to open government data. Their common driving force is the call for a widespread dissemination of publicly funded information. However, the regulatory standard set out by the PSI Directive is characterized by considerable legal uncertainty. Therefore, it is difficult to derive robust assumptions that can form the basis for predicting the effects of extending the PSI Directive’s scope to research information. A potential revision of the PSI Directive should reduce this uncertainty. Moreover, PSI regulation must account for the specific incentives linked to the creation and dissemination of research results. This seems of primary importance for public-private research collaborations because there is a potential risk that a full application of the PSI Directive might unduly change incentives for such collaborations.

More Haste, Less Speed: Could Public-Private Partnerships Advance Cellular Immunotherapies?

Cellular immunotherapies promise to transform cancer care. However, they must overcome serious challenges, including: (1) the need to identify and characterize novel cancer antigens to expand the range of therapeutic targets; (2) the need to develop strategies to minimize serious adverse events, such as cytokine release syndrome and treatment-related toxicities; and (3) the need to develop efficient production/manufacturing processes to reduce costs. Here, we discuss whether these challenges might better be addressed through forms of public–private research collaborations, including public–private partnerships (PPPs), or whether these challenges are best addressed by way of standard market transactions. We reviewed 14 public–private relationships and 25 underlying agreements for the clinical development of cancer cellular immunotherapies in the US. Most were based on bilateral research agreements and pure market transactions in the form of service contracts and technology licenses, which is representative of the commercialization focus of the field. We make the strategic case that multiparty PPPs may better advance cancer antigen discovery and characterization and improved cell processing/manufacturing and related activities. In the rush toward the competitive end of the translational continuum for cancer cellular immunotherapy and the attendant focus on commercialization, many gaps have appeared in our understanding of cellular biology, immunology, and bioengineering. We conclude that the model of bilateral agreements between leading research institutions and the private sector may be inadequate to efficiently harness the interdisciplinary skills and knowledge of the public and private sectors to bring these promising therapies to the clinic for the benefit of cancer patients.

New Organizational Arrangements for Public-Private Research Collaboration

This paper studies Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) as organizational platforms for Targeted Open Innovation. Specifically, the concept of Targeted Open Innovation is used to interpret the engagement of firms with other stakeholders within an innovation ecosystem in order to better collaborate and share their knowledge. The paper analyses the funding structure of CRCs in Spain using a sample of 123 CRCs. We aim to determine the effect of the degree of intersectoral collaboration on the CRCs’ funding portfolio. We characterised CRCs—“market-oriented”, “academic-oriented” and “government-oriented”—according to the degree of involvement of each sectoral actor in diverse organisational aspects, setting their objectives, executing the R&D and establishing the managerial processes and evaluation practices. We find that CRCs with market-oriented characteristics rely less on public competitive funds and CRCs with academic-oriented characteristics have a more diversified funding portfolio.

Public–Private Collaboration in Clinical Research During Pregnancy, Lactation, and Childhood

This position statement summarises a view of academia regarding standards for clinical research in collaboration with commercial enterprises, focussing on trials in pregnant women, breast-feeding women, and children. It is based on a review of the available literature and an expert workshop cosponsored by the Early Nutrition Academy and the European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. Clinical research collaborations between academic investigators and commercial enterprises are encouraged by universities, public funding agencies, and governmental organisations. One reason is a pressing need to obtain evidence on the effects, safety, and benefits of drugs and other commercial products and services. The credibility and value of results obtained through public-private research collaborations have, however, been questioned because many examples of inappropriate research practice have become known. Clinical research in pregnant and breast-feeding women, and in infants and children, raises sensitive scientific, ethical, and societal questions and requires the application of particularly high standards. Here we provide recommendations for the conduct of public-private research collaborations in these populations. In the interest of all stakeholders, these recommendations should contribute to more reliable, credible, and acceptable results of commercially sponsored trials and to reducing the existing credibility gap.

The Evolving Institutional Structure of Public and Private Agricultural Research

AbstractOver the past several decades, the private sector has assumed a larger role in developing improved technology for food and agriculture. Private companies fund nearly all food processing research and development (R&D) and perform a growing share of production‐oriented R&D for agriculture. In addition, institutional partnerships for public–private research collaboration are growing in the United States and other countries. This article outlines the major forces driving these changes and offers an interpretive framework to explore some of the implications for the volume and nature of research performed by the public and private sectors. One of the critical issues is whether public agricultural research complements and thereby stimulates additional private agricultural R&D investments. Another important issue concerns the role and contribution of alternative public–private partnership arrangements. To date, changes in the institutional structure of public and private agricultural research have outpaced systematic investigation, and new theoretical and empirical research is needed to help guide policy and address key societal challenges, such as climate change, clean energy, water scarcity, food safety, and health.

An Update on the South African Pilot CO2 Storage Project

South Africa is reliant on fossil fuels. These fossil fuels are important to economic development, being the most dependable, cost-effective energy source currently available in this country however, their conventional use results in significant CO2 emissions for the country. South Africa will require a portfolio of technologies to reduce its CO2 emissions however with a heavily coal-based economy, CCS is likely to be a particularly important part of this portfolio. To assess the technical potential for CCS in South Africa, the South African Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage (SACCCS) was established in 2009 as a public-private research collaboration. The current focus of SACCCS is the development of the Pilot CO2 Storage Project (PCSP) which will inject and store between 10-50,000tCO2 in South African conditions. With the development of the PCSP now underway, there has been significant progress to date, in particular in the areas of funding, permitting and stakeholder engagement where around USD 50 million has been raised for the project, a request for approval for basin exploration submitted, and a significant number of stakeholders engaged. There have however also been some delays with the development of the PCSP, particularly following the PCSP Advisory Committee (PAC) review of geological analysis done to date for the Zululand and Algoa Basins. The PAC recommended that more information could yet be extracted from the existing data prior to deciding whether or not to progress to the acquisition of new geological data (Gate 2 Review). SAC CCS is now working on the implementation of the PAC Review recommendations and the development of Gate 2 Deliverables in preparation for the Gate 2 Review.

The USPTO economics research agenda

This article outlines the creation of the Chief Economist’s Office at the US Patent and Trademark Office in March, 2010, and the publication of the Office’s first economics research agenda. In describing the elements of the research agenda—the role of intellectual property (IP) in economic growth, performance, and employment; IP and technology standards; the economics of trademarks; the economics of United States Patent and Trademark Office initiatives; and IP and the markets for technology—we both review the state of knowledge and outline ongoing initiatives and future possibilities. The article also suggests opportunities for ongoing public–private research collaboration on these issues, particularly between government and academic researchers.

Evaluation of public research by Japanese industry: the importance of knowledge transfer pass on public-private research collaboration

Due to the recent trend towards the incorporation of increasingly advanced and complex technologies in high-tech products and services, the full benefit of these advanced technologies cannot be realised without access to adequate science-based knowledge. Consequently, the distance of university and industry has become closer. This paper focuses on recent trends in public-private research collaboration in Japan and examines the importance of information sources/activities from public research by assessing the results of a questionnaire survey for the industry. The main findings are that 'discussions', 'cooperative research with the public sector' and 'publications from public research' are the most useful information sources for industrial R&D, while 'patents/licensing from public research' are the least. A serious mismatch is seen in incentives between the public sector and private sector on publicprivate collaboration and intellectual property transfer system.

Assessing public–private research collaboration: is it possible to compare university performance?

It is widely recognized that collaboration between the public and private research sectors should be stimulated and supported, as a means of favoring innovation and regional development. This work takes a bibliometric approach, based on co-authorship of scientific publications, to propose a model for comparative measurement of the performance of public research institutions in collaboration with the domestic industry collaboration with the private sector. The model relies on an identification and disambiguation algorithm developed by the authors to link each publication to its real authors. An example of application of the model is given, for the case of the academic system and private enterprises in Italy. The study demonstrates that for each scientific discipline and each national administrative region, it is possible to measure the performance of individual universities in both intra-regional and extra-regional collaboration, normalized with respect to advantages of location. Such results may be useful in informing regional policies and merit-based public funding of research organizations.

University–industry collaboration in Italy: A bibliometric examination

This work investigates public–private research collaboration between Italian universities and domestic industry, applying a bibliometric type of approach. The study is based on an exhaustive listing of all co-authored publications in international journals that are jointly realized by Italian university scientists and researchers in the private sector; this listing permits the development of a national mapping system for public–private collaboration that is unique for its extensive and representative character. It is shown that, in absolute terms, most collaborations occur in medicine and chemistry, while it is industrial and information engineering that shows the highest percentage of co-authored articles out of all articles in the field. In addition, the investigation empirically examines and tests several hypotheses concerning the qualitative–quantitative impact of collaboration on the scientific production of individual university researchers. The analyses demonstrate that university researchers who collaborate with those in the private sector show research performance that is superior to that of colleagues who are not involved in such collaboration. But the impact factor of journals publishing academic articles co-authored by industry is generally lower than that concerning co-authorships with other entities. Finally, a further specific elaboration also reveals that publications with public–private co-authorship do not show a level of multidisciplinarity that is significantly different from that of other publications.

Are developing-country policies and investments promoting research and research partnerships in agricultural biotechnology?

This article presents findings from two studies of public-sector research on agricultural biotechnology. The first focuses on national agricultural research organisations and universities in developing countries, while the second focuses on public-private research collaborations with international agricultural research centres. Findings suggest that a number of developing countries are, in fact, investing in research on agricultural biotechnology and genetically modified crops. Nevertheless, public policy, public awareness and investment environments may be inhibiting the understanding and diffusion of these new technologies. Findings further suggest that valuable private-sector resources are not being brought to bear on research and development, thus slowing the pace of innovation. If developing-country agriculture is to benefit from advances in biotechnology, greater effort is needed to enhance the international exchange of information, overcome barriers to cross-sectoral research collaboration, develop new approaches to product delivery, and reverse the isolation of public research institutions.

Research Policy In Emerging Economies: Brazil’s Sector Funds

This paper examines Brazil’s Sector Funds, an emerging research and development policy that seeks to increase public-private research collaboration. The first section sets the context of the ‘policy problem’. The second section discusses the policy’s implementation, and discusses its likely implications for Brazil and beyond.

Competition and Cooperation in Industrial Clusters: The Implications for Public Policy

Alfred Marshall believed that, while the benefits of clusters resulted from cooperation between firms, competition was an important driving force. In contrast, contemporary theories of clusters place most emphasis on collective action. This article seeks to distinguish processes of competition and cooperation within clusters, through a critical reading of different theoretical approaches. This distinction has important implications for the scale and nature of public policy. An emphasis on competitive processes implies a more macro-economic role for public agencies in seeking to raise investment in innovation while the fostering of cooperation implies measures to support decentralized public-private research collaborations.

Evaluating performance of public–private research collaborations: A DEA analysis

The issue of intellectual capital and its measurement is investigated in this paper. We provide an overview of how a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach was used to investigate some characteristics of performance for joint intersectoral research and development collaboration projects, with a specific emphasis of use of intellectual property (ie, patents) as one of the outcomes of these collaborations. Some knowledge-based factors are investigated in this paper to determine if there is a relationship between these factors and research partnership performance. Of particular focus in this paper, and focusing on the special issue topic, is whether knowledge management and knowledge goals play a role in whether these collaborations perform better or worse. The study is based on empirical data from a programme of technological policy existing in Spain, known as the Concerted Projects.