{"id":54695,"date":"2009-10-21T11:56:26","date_gmt":"2009-10-21T16:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologytransfertactics.com\/content\/?p=5119"},"modified":"2009-10-21T11:56:26","modified_gmt":"2009-10-21T16:56:26","slug":"report-cites-evidence-of-corporate-influence-on-research-recommends-disclosure-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/54695","title":{"rendered":"Report cites evidence of corporate influence on research, recommends disclosure guidelines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Large-scale, commercial involvement in university-based science has a detrimental impact on basic research, according to a report issued by Scientists for Global Responsibility<\/a>, an independent body based in the U.K. “Science and the Corporate Agenda: the detrimental effects of commercial influence on science and technology” alleges that the drive among universities to commercialize introduces significant research bias and marginalizes work with social and environmental benefits. These impacts occur at different levels, including individual research studies, the agenda-setting process for R&D, and the communication of findings to fellow professionals, policy-makers, and the public. Direct commercial funding of a research study increases the likelihood that the results will favor the corporate sponsor, according to evidence from academic research in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors — for example, by selecting scientists who are sympathetic to the viewpoint of research sponsors. Intentional distortion or suppression of data is less common but does occur, especially in pharmaceutical and tobacco-funded areas, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Research transparency also can be compromised through the use of commercial confidentiality agreements and other IP rights considerations. Scientists may have financial interests with the potential to compromise the research process, yet there is little monitoring or policing of the problem so its true extent is unknown, according to the report. The authors found evidence of this problem in the pharmaceutical, tobacco, and biotechnology sectors. When setting the priorities and direction of R&D, governments increasingly use economic criteria to decide which projects to fund, and these decisions often are made in close consultation with business. As companies expand the number and range of partnerships with universities, and as researchers feel increased pressure to attract corporate funding, academic departments are increasingly orienting themselves to commercial needs rather than to the broader public interest, the report charges. The result is a greater focus on IP rights in academic work. “Knowledge is increasingly being \u2018commodified’ for short-term economic benefit,” the authors allege, undermining its application for wider public benefit and producing a narrow approach to scientific curiosity. The interest of business in emerging technologies such as synthetic biology and nanotechnology also is leading to decisions about these powerful technologies with little public consultation.<\/p>\n

The report calls for universities to adopt minimum ethical standards to guide corporate partnerships. These standards should include social and environmental criteria as well as academic criteria and should be overseen by a special committee, it recommends. Universities also should openly publish information on the nature of their business partnerships and open a register of interests for academics — particularly those working in controversial areas of science and technology. The report also proposes the creation of an independent organization to disburse “a significant fraction” of business funding for scientific research. The aim of this body would be to fund research with a particular public interest and which may be neglected by mainstream funding sources. In addition, “more academic research needs to be conducted into the potentially detrimental effects of the commercialization of science and technology, especially within universities,” the report concludes.<\/p>\n

Source: Science Business<\/a><\/p>\n


<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Large-scale, commercial involvement in university-based science has a detrimental impact on basic research, according to a report issued by Scientists for Global Responsibility, an independent body based in the U.K. “Science and the Corporate Agenda: the detrimental effects of commercial influence on science and technology” alleges that the drive among universities to commercialize introduces significant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}