Sharing the Harvest? The Uncertain Fruits of Public/Private Collaboration in Plant Biotechnology

在生命科学中，基础科学和应用科学之间的区别正在消失，因为分子水平上的基础发现被证明与医学和农业的应用问题直接相关。这种转变，加上知识产权保护的加强，激励企业开展、合作并资助更多的基础科学。在公共方面，这种转变鼓励大学和研究机构将他们的发现商业化。该项目考察了公共和私人资金以及公共和私人价值如何结合起来支持合作发现，并调查了谁的利益是公共或私人公司的利益。该研究的重点是植物生物技术的案例，绘制了科学家与参与遗传模式生物拟南芥研究的公共、私人和非营利组织之间的关系。在这种背景下，本研究特别寻求回答三个问题：公司资助对1)科研重点的影响是什么；2)科学思想和技术的应用和传播；3)科学家的研究活动和职业？在回答这些问题的过程中，该项目评估了一个基础研究项目如何以应用为导向。该项目还追溯拟南芥发现的应用，超越其起源的科学家、组织、部门和国家，到新一代的基础生物科学和应用生物技术。该项目通过跟踪引用拟南芥研究的出版物和专利的轨迹，以及通过跟踪出版物和专利文本中的思想和技术来跟踪这些发现。此外，本研究还探讨了企业与大学科学的联系如何影响大学和企业内部的科学专利和出版活动。这种对科学和商业前沿相互作用的机构和价值观的关注，将为试图评估科学资助影响的政策制定者和慈善家提供信息，并让科学家深入了解他们的工作的用途，以及可能制约他们的潜在机构冲突。更广泛地说，这项研究将提供一幅地图，显示在科学和工业的共同进化中，知识在公共、私营和非营利部门之间的传播方式。

The distinction between basic and applied science is eroding in the life sciences, as fundamental discoveries at the molecular level prove immediately relevant to applied problems of medicine and agriculture. This transformation, together with increased intellectual property protection, motivates firms to perform, collaborate, and fund more basic science. On the public side, this transformation encourages universities and research institutes to commercialize their discoveries. This project examines how public and private funds and public and private values combine in support of collaborative discoveries, and investigates whose interests - those of the general public or private companies-are served. The research focuses on the case of plant biotechnology, mapping the relationships among scientists and the public, private, and nonprofit organizations involved in research on the genetic model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. In this setting, the research specifically seeks to answer three questions: What is the influence of company funding on 1) the focus of scientific research; 2) the applications and the spread of scientific ideas and techniques; and 3) the research activities and careers of scientists? In answering these questions, the project evaluates how a basic research program can take on an applied orientation. The project also traces the application of Arabidopsis discoveries beyond the scientists, organizations, sectors and countries from which they originate to new generations of basic bioscience and applied biotechnology. The project tracks these discoveries by following the trail of publications and patents that cite Arabidopsis research, and by following ideas and techniques across publications and patent texts. In addition, the research investigates how the association of firms with university science shapes the scientific patenting and publishing activities within universities and firms. This focus on interacting institutions and values at the frontiers of science and commerce will inform policy makers and philanthropists trying to assess the impact of science funding, and offer scientists insight into the uses of their work and the potential institutional conflicts that may constrain them. More broadly, this research will provide a map of the ways that knowledge spills across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors in the co-evolution of science and industry.