Defining Values for Research and Technology: The University's Changing Role

by William T. Greenough, Philip J. McConnaughay, Jay P. Kesan, Erich Bloch, Ann B. Carlson

Overview

Since the end of the Cold War, federal funding for research at American universities has sharply decreased, leaving administrators searching for a new benefactor. At the same time, changes in federal policy permitting universities to patent, license, and profit from their discoveries combined with the emergence of new fields that thinned the lines between "basic" and "applied" research to make universities an attractive partner to private industry. This reorientation from public to private funding has created new challenges for the academy.

In thirteen insightful and wide-ranging essays, Defining Values for Research and Technology examines the modern research university in the throes of transition. Contributors discuss the tensions of research versus education, public funding versus corporatization, and the academic freedom of open discussion versus the secrecy needed to ensure financial gain. Will universities and their professors pursue industrial imperatives at the expense of traditional academic values, or will they harness the energy of industry to advance a mission of research for the public good?

Defining Values for Research and Technology, while acknowledging potential dangers, argues that university-industry partnerships have the potential to both benefit industrial expansion and enrich academic life. In doing so, it raises important points about the connections between "pure" science and industrialized technology more generally, and the role that policy plays in science. Both those interested in the evolution of the academy and scholars of the history and sociology of science will find something worthwhile within its pages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742550261
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/17/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.04(w) x 8.99(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

William T. Greenough is Swanlund Chair and Center for Advanced Study Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Cell and Structural Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Philip J. McConnaughay is dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law at The Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law. Jay P. Kesan is professor and director of the Program in Intellectual Property & Technology Law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction Part 2 I. The Purpose of the Research University Chapter 3 1. Research Universities in the Third Millennium: Genius with Character Chapter 4 2. The University of the Twenty-First Century: Artifact, Sea Anchor, or Pathfinder Chapter 5 3. Can Universities Survive the Global Knowledge Revolution? Part 6 II. Forging Partnerships: Industry, Governments, and the Research University Chapter 7 4. The Changing Nature of Innovation in the U.S. Chapter 8 5. Back to the Future—The Increasing Importance of the States in Setting the Research Agenda Chapter 9 6. Global Public Goods for Poor Farmers—Myth or Reality Chapter 10 7. Science and Sustainable Food Security Part 11 III. Funding, Economic Incentives, and the Research Agenda Chapter 12 8. Federal Science Policy and University Research Agendas Chapter 13 9. The Ethical Challenges of the Academic Pork Barrel Chapter 14 10. The Public-Private Divide in Genomics Part 15 IV. The Dark Side of University-Corporate Partnerships Chapter 16 11. The Effects of University/Corporate Relations on Biotechnology Research Chapter 17 12. The Governmentalization and Corporatization of Research Chapter 18 13. Technology and the Humanities in the "Global" Economy

Editorial Reviews

Like it or not, universities have become the centerpiece of economic development strategies throughout this country and most of the world. At the same time, the pressure for institutions to manage conflicts and to ensure access to publicly funded research discoveries and tools has increased enormously. In their introduction and by their collection of topics, authors, and content, the editors of Defining Values for Research and Technology clearly understand the delicate search for an appropriate balance between these competing pressures. This is an excellent and thoughtful work, and I recommend it highly.

Mark Crowell

A highly readable and equally troubling collection of essays addressing momentous questions about the future of academia: Can research universities afford not to 'follow the money' from public to private sources, and can society afford the long term results if the mission of universities becomes increasingly commercial, political, and shortsighted? There are no easy answers, but the contributors to this volume present both facts and varied opinions that are worth reading by anyone who wonders where the great discoveries of the future are going to come from.

Harry Lewis

A highly readable and equally troubling collection of essays addressing momentous questions about the future of academia: Can research universities afford not to 'follow the money' from public to private sources, and can society afford the long term results if the mission of universities becomes increasingly commercial, political, and shortsighted? There are no easy answers, but the contributors to this volume present both facts and varied opinions that are worth reading by anyone who wonders where the great discoveries of the future are going to come from.--Harry Lewis, Harvard University, author of Excellence without a Soul

Like it or not, universities have become the centerpiece of economic development strategies throughout this country and most of the world. At the same time, the pressure for institutions to manage conflicts and to ensure access to publicly funded research discoveries and tools has increased enormously. In their introduction and by their collection of topics, authors, and content, the editors of Defining Values for Research and Technology clearly understand the delicate search for an appropriate balance between these competing pressures. This is an excellent and thoughtful work, and I recommend it highly.--Mark Crowell, Associate Vice Chancellor for Economic Development and Technology Transfer, UNC-CH

For those who are passionate or even mildly curious about the genius and character of the contemporary research university and the values that underlie it, this volume is a priceless find. It is at once thoughtful, lovingly critical, and at many points absolutely eloquent.--Stanley Ikenberry, former president, University of Illinois

From the Publisher

Whether you believe that research universities are creating a knowledge-intensive, equitable and sustainable world, or fear they are succumbing to the temptations, corruption, and greed of their sponsors and patrons—or both—you must read these thought-provoking essays. They will energize your search for how universities can save themselves from their own success.

Lewis M. Branscomb

For those who are passionate or even mildly curious about the genius and character of the contemporary research university and the values that underlie it, this volume is a priceless find. It is at once thoughtful, lovingly critical, and at many points absolutely eloquent.

Stanley Ikenberry