The Rate and Direction of Agricultural Research at US Land Grant Universities

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The overall goal of this research is to develop an improved understanding of universityresource allocation in agricultural research by examining the ethics and values associatedwith research outputs (articles, patents, and doctorates), potential changes in thedirection of and audience for scientific researchers (e.g., basic vs applied, firms forlicensing vs broader public dissemination), and the observable quality of the research (interms of citations, licensing revenues, or other measures). The project will examine theresource allocation process at the university level as well as at the level of individualresearchers within the agricultural and life science colleges of U.S. Land Grantuniversities (LGU).At the university level, the project is built on a 20-year panel database on universityresearch inputs, outputs, and patent revenues that two of the principal investigators(Barham and Foltz) have developed over the past 4 years. At the individual level, theproject will undertake a major survey of university researchers at LGUs asking themdetailed questions about their research direction, outputs, grant sources, stakeholders,and attitudes. This survey of scientists follows up on a previous survey done by anotherof the principal investigators in the mid-1990s (Buttel) as well as an earlier effort byLacy and Busch in 1979.The research methods in this project advance the literature on academic patenting in anumber of important ways. First, the theoretical framework, "motivation crowding,"provides a novel framework for understanding how monetary incentives affect scientists'ethics, values, and research choices and the framework's use advances the theory byproviding an empirical test of its propositions. Second, by building on past datacollection efforts, this work will have both cross-section and time-series informationthat can advance our understanding of scientist ethics, values, and research choices.Third, this work will be able to integrate the scientist data with university levelinformation across time and universities. Fourth, by having an interdisciplinary researchteam, this project will be able to combine the ethics and values concerns of sociologywith the data and theory driven analytic tools of economists.This project investigates a series of regulatory and legal changes that appear to behaving a major impact on the way in which research is done at agricultural colleges inLGUs. The incentives created by university patenting are changing the ethics and valuesof scientists, the types of projects they choose, the outlets for their research, and howthat research gets disseminated to the public (e.g., patents or open publications). Giventhe central role of public sector research to generating new agricultural technologiesover the last century, these changes in LGU research focus and scientist values may havesignificant impacts on the long-term sustainability of US agriculture (Goldberger andButtel, 2001).A deeper understanding of resource allocation and outcomes in university research cancontribute toward the design of better policies and incentive structures to promoteagricultural and life science research at LGUs, including efficiency and equity outcomes.Findings from this study will be presented to key decision makers at Land Grantuniversities, in state legislatures, and to interdisciplinary audiences.