INDUSTRY LINKS BOOST RESEARCH OUTPUT New Findings Suggest Corporate Collaboration Encourages Academic Productivity

SCIENCE INC. | NATURE INDEX MATT BEARDSLEY/SLAC MATT

Industry funding supports more applied research, such as this lithium-polysulfide flow battery, which could serve as a model for low-cost, long-lasting energy storage. INDUSTRY LINKS BOOST RESEARCH OUTPUT New findings suggest corporate collaboration encourages academic productivity. BY NEIL SAVAGE

NATURE INDEX | SCIENCE INC.

here is widespread agreement that US$3.6 billion, or 5.7% of total funding, on par differences observed by Hottenrott and other collaborations between industry and with investment from non-profits, and state studies, says Bikard, could simply be due to academia are good for the businesses and local government. how worthy of publishing a research project Tinvolved, and generally have a positive effect The situation is similar in the UK and Ger- is. “Every piece of science is different, so it’s on the economy. Their influence on academic many, says Hanna Hottenrott, an economist very difficult to know what causes what,” Bik- productivity, however, is a more ambiguous at Technical University of Munich, Germany. ard says. question. Some scientists worry that busi- She looked at corporate funding in the late nesses, determined to keep intellectual prop- 1990s and the effect it had on publishing and LONG DIVISION erty and profits for themselves, will delay the patenting by professors of engineering in the To eliminate any confounding factors, the publication of studies or suppress negative early 2000s. In the period she studied, corpo- researchers looked at groups that were work- results. Corporate pressure could also divert rate funding did not exceed 15% and 10% of ing on the same problems, with and without scientific efforts from fundamental studies, the total investment in academic research in industry collaboration. They identified scien- toward applied research. Several studies into Germany and in the UK, respectively. More tific discoveries that had been made more or the effect of corporate funding on scientific recent OECD estimates suggest that, in 2014, less simultaneously by two or more different productivity have reinforced these fears. businesses contributed to about 14% of R&D research groups between 1996 and 2008. But one analysis by business management expenditure in Germany, and 4% in the UK. Most of the discoveries were in the life sci- researchers in the United Kingdom and Hottenrott’s analysis found that even a ences, which Bikard says could be due to the United States suggests that corporate collabo- relatively small corporate contribution had a fact that high-impact journals, Nature, Science, ration increases the productivity of academics negative effect on scientific productivity. Aca- and Cell, publish more in those areas. after a discovery. “Researchers working with demics working with industry saw a decrease The team identified 33 of these ‘twin discov- industry produce more follow-on publica- in their publication rates and in the number eries’, where at least one group had industry tions,” says Keyvan Vakili at the University of of times they were cited by other research- collaborators and one did not, and looked Southern California, an author of the study, ers. At the same time, their patent numbers at their subsequent publication record. The which is currently under review at a scientific increased, which, she says, implies a shift to team estimated that academics who worked journal. applied research. But the move from papers with industry produced on average 7.7 more to patents should appease concerns over cor- follow-up papers based on the discovery, pub- HINDERING SCIENCE? porate confidentiality inhibiting publication lishing about a third more than those who Industry–academia collaborations have been productivity, says Hottenrott, as patents also didn’t collaborate. Somewhat surprisingly, the a small, yet enduring presence in the knowl- disclose findings. team found that academics in collaborations edge production system. According to the US Vakili and his colleagues, Florenta Teodor- with industry filed fewer patents than academ- National Science Foundation (NSF), industry idis, also at the University of Southern Cali- ics on their own. has accounted for between 3 and 9% of aca- fornia, and Michaël Bikard, at the London The increase in publishing and the decrease demic research funding every year, going back Business School, were not entirely convinced in patenting by academics who collaborate to 1972. In 2014, the latest year available, it was by the negative results. The productivity with industry could be a result of an efficient

BUSINESS SPENDING ON HIGHER EDUCATION R&D PUBLICATION BOOST 40 The contribution of businesses to research and development expenditure Academic scientists 35 in higher education has remained relatively stable over the past decade. who collaborate with In most countries, except China, their share of spending was less than 15%. large established 30

rms publish more 25 China Germany United States United Kingdom Japan papers. 20 No industry 40 collaboration 15 Collaboration with a startup 10

35 Collaboration with an Estimated number of publications

5 2017 F., K. & TEODORIDIS, BIKARD, M., VAKILI, established company 0

30 INCREASED CHATTER 160 Papers authored by 140 25 academic researchers in 2016 were more 120 widely publicised when 20 they had a corporate 100 co-author, as measured by their Altmetric 80 Attention Score. The 15 INDICATORS MAIN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SOURCE: OECD

Altmetric score tracks INDEX & ALTMETRIC SOURCE: NATURE 60 the discussion around a published paper,

10 article Altmetric score Average 40 from news articles to

Higher education R&D nanced by the business sector (%) blog posts and tweets. 20

5 With a corporate co-author 0 Without a corporate co-author Chemistry Life sciences Earth & environmental Physical sciences sciences 0

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Error bars show the 95% con dence interval around each estimated point

S12 | NATURE INDEX 2017 | SCIENCE INC.©2017 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved. ©2017 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved.

SCIENCE INC. | NATURE INDEX

division of labour, Vakili suggests. Many journals, industry funding was associated with a cell line, say — that they don’t sell, but that scientists who don’t have industry collabora- a 26% increase in citation rates, suggesting can help scientists. Businesses that work with tions are still interested in commercializing that the research was considered important. university researchers often also hire graduate discoveries. Academic publications were also more students. A large majority of science graduates It could be, Vakili says, that those scien- likely to grab public attention if they included do not get faculty jobs. Showing them research tists devote some of their time to turning a a corporate co-author, according to an analy- opportunities outside academia is important discovery into a product and have less time sis of the high-quality papers tracked by the for attracting students to science in the first to write papers. Meanwhile, in an academic– index. The social media chat around a pub- place. “If universities want their people to be industry collaboration, the industry side could lication authored by an academic researcher, employed, to be prepared to be employees, be focussed on the commercialization work, measured by its altmetric attention score, working with industry during their graduate leaving the academics free to publish more. more than doubled when a corporate studies is a real benefit,” Boccanfuso says. While the twin study looked at collabora- researcher was involved. Industry can provide And, he points out, industry is not alone in tions where industry was actively involved in pulling research out of the lab. Most funding research, some collaborations are just finan- agencies are also eager to see the science they cial, where firms provide grants to sponsor support translate into a public benefit, which academics' work. In a separate analysis of “RESEARCHERS WORKING often means commercializing discoveries. papers in that dataset, Bikard says, the team “Increasingly, federal agencies are looking found neither a positive nor negative effect on WITH INDUSTRY PRODUCE for either explicit or implicit business valida- publishing from sponsorship. “We’re not say- tion for university research ideas, especially ing that bringing money is not important,” he for large projects,” says Boccanfuso. says, but industry sponsorship did not provide MORE FOLLOW-ON The National Institutes of Health (NIH) an edge, maybe because academics in the sam- wants new drugs in the marketplace, the ple get enough funding from other sources. PUBLICATIONS.” Department of Energy wants better batteries or catalysts, and the Department of Agricul- MORE POSITIVES ture wants better crops. Other research has seen positive effects of other benefits to academics besides financial Some programmes, like the NIH’s Clini- industry funding. A 2017 paper in World support, says Anthony Boccanfuso, head of cal and Translational Science Awards and the Neurosurgery found that industry funding was the University-Industry Demonstration Part- National Network for Manufacturing Innova- associated with increased scholarly impact nership, a non-profit organization originally tion require some level of collaboration. The among academic neurosurgeons, as measured sponsored by the US National Academy of NSF is even partnering with companies such by their h-index, which counts a researcher’s Sciences to help academia and business col- as Intel and VMWare to co-sponsor research publications and the rate at which they are laborate. grants. As these interests converge, corporate cited. A 2007 study in PLOS ONE found For one, corporations often have technolo- influence on science will only become more that, for papers published in leading medical gies or materials — a piece of equipment or difficult to decipher. ■

FINDING COMMON GROUND

Industry support for academic research take adjunct teaching or research positions occurs in many ways. Here are some of the to interact with academics. Faculty may also common forms. take temporary jobs with industry during sabbaticals. Student fellowships: Students work on a project of interest to the company. Collaborative research: Multi-year ANDREW BROOKES/GETTY ANDREW BROOKES/GETTY collaborations, often in a general area, in which Software or hardware grants: Companies academia and industry share confidential provide tools to support research. information, materials, and intellectual SOURCE: UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY DEMONSTRATION PARTNERSHIP DEMONSTRATION SOURCE: UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY property. Consultancy: Companies hire students or faculty for a limited time to work on Cost-sharing: Pledge of financial support in a project. a proposal to a federal funding agency that looks for matching funds. Sponsored research: Industry funds a specific project. University–industry consortium: A long- term, multifaceted arrangement aimed at Sponsored clinical trials: Industry designs addressing a particular research issue that promote commercialization, and encourage and underwrites human trials by academic goes beyond a single project. the growth of new companies. researchers of drug candidates. Research park: A shared campus intended Joint laboratories: Research facilities Joint appointments: Industry researchers to create university–industry partnerships, shared by academia and industry.

©2017 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved. ©2017 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts resNATUREerved. INDEX 2017 | SCIENCE INC. | S13