The Impact of Federal Life Science Funding on University R&D

学术研究的资金，特别是在生命科学方面，在过去十年中迅速增长，2008年总额达到180亿美元。2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（ARRA）提供了额外的82亿美元的联邦资源，用于资助大学和其他学术中心的生命科学研究。本研究通过追踪联邦资助通过研究管道的路径来检查资助的影响。 具体的影响包括来自非联邦来源的额外资金、应用知识的创造和思想的商业化。该项目的智力价值是开发实证方法和进行分析，使用ARRA 2009作为“自然实验”，分析联邦R D资金增加对大学非联邦资金的影响。它还使用计量经济学技术来检查的影响，联邦资金的研发在生命科学的专利授予大学。最后，使用企业联盟的数据，进行初步分析，了解联邦资助对联盟形成、生产率和研究商业化的影响。更广泛的影响：本研究涉及到一个新的数据集的建设，结合联邦资助数据和大学-企业联盟的成果，设置一个阶段，在未来的研究界更详细的实证评估。这项研究揭示了一美元的联邦研究支出如何在研究过程中转化为知识和医疗产品。总之，这项研究提供了更多的信息，使科学和技术政策制定者能够评估纳税人资助的生命科学研究对整个社会的好处，并就利用的优势和解决的弱点提供指导。

Funding for academic research, especially in the life sciences, has risen rapidly over the last decade, totaling $18 billion in 2008. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provided an additional $8.2 billion in federal resources to fund life science research at universities and other academic centers. This research examines the impact of the funding by tracing the path of federal funding through the research pipeline. The particular effects considered include additional funding from non-federal sources, the creation of applied knowledge, and the commercialization of ideas.The intellectual merit of the project is the development of empirical methods and conduct of analysis that uses ARRA 2009 as a "natural experiment" to analyze the effects of an increase in federal R&D funding on non-federal funding at universities. It also uses econometric techniques to examine the impact of federal funding for R&D in the life sciences on patents granted to universities. Finally, it uses data on firm alliances and conducts preliminary analysis to understand the effects of federal funding on alliance formation, productivity, and commercialization of research.Broader Impacts: The research involves the construction of a novel dataset that combines federal funding data and university-firm alliance outcomes, setting the stage for more detailed empirical assessment in the future by the research community. The research sheds light on how a dollar of federal research expenditure translates into knowledge and medical products as it traverses the research pathway. In sum, the research provides more information whereby policymakers in science and technology can assess the benefits of taxpayer-funded life sciences research to society at large, and provide guidance on the strengths to capitalize on and weaknesses to address.