Morality, Responsibility, and the University: Studies in Academic Ethics

11. Business-University Partnerships

11 BUSINESS-UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS Norman E. Bowie One of the more significant developments in higher education in the 1980s is the growth of partnerships between education and industry. Most of these are research partnerships in the natural sciences , especially in biology. However, partnerships are found in the business education field and in other areas. Examples of such partnerships include a $52 million research fund at Washington University established by Monsanto Company and used by Monsanto and university scientists to develop pharmaceutical drugs and a $60 million fund to support FIOlA-Georgetown Institute, devoted to basic brain research and established by the Italian company FIOlA.1 In addition, industry-university partnerships are in place at such widely diverse places as Carnegie-Mellon, Stanford, Purdue, Rensselaer, Georgia Tech, Brigham Young, University of Michigan, University of Illinois, University ofTennessee, Auburn University, University of Cincinnati, and Ohio State University.2 Although business-university partnerships represent a small percentage of the research efforts of American industry,3 the percentage is expected to grow. Business leaders and university administrators view such partnerships as a good thing, and those business and university officials who have had actual experience with them are especially enthusiastic. The advantages to each partner are fairly obvious, although the magnitude of the advantage is not. Americanbusiness has beenwidely criticized for investing so little in research and development, especially basic research. American business has been unfavorably compared to business in foreign countries like Japan and West Germany in this respect. Partnerships with universities give business access to research facilities, but far more important, I believe, such partnerships give 195 196 I NORMAN E. BOWIE business access to research professors. Frequently the physical equipment required in such projects is not currently available on campus and has to be purchased by the business partner. Often the business partner cannot even make use of a campus building; a new structure is needed, and frequently the business partner pays for it as well. In theory a building might be used for a number of different projects with different business partners and by spreading the costs, some savings might be effected. Generally, however, business firms do not enter into these partnerships because they provide opportunities to save on capital expenditures. The access to human capital is far more important. After all, there are many highly skilled researchers who enjoy the life-style associated with universities. These researchers would prefer university employment to a position in an industrial lab. However, the research projects of many university scientists are of great interest to industry. To see why, consider that Howard A. Schneiderman, senior vice-president and chief scientist for corporate research at Monsanto claims that the company decision to purchase G. D. Searle was based in large part on discoveries made by Monsanto's university partners at Washington University. "Through the program we made enough discoveries to justify buying Searle.,,4 Corporate decisions like Monsanto's should put to rest the view that ivory-towered professors aren't doing research that is of benefit to American industry. If further evidence is needed, consider that at an international conference on computer design, about half the nearly one hundred fifty presentations were based on university projects.5 University research in artificial intelligence, superconductivity, computer architectures and testing, neuroscience, computer-integrated systems, robotics, composite materials, microelectronics, and biotechnology is of great interest to corporations, nor is this list meant to be exhaustive. To be competitive in the international arena, many industry leaders recognize they need access to that research and to secure patent rights and/or licensing agreements to the products of that research . We should also realize that the executives of foreign businesses are well aware of the potential commercial value of American university research. The growing number of foreign nationals in our science and engineering programs has been widely reported. An anecdote may make the point more vividly than the statistics. Cornell University was considering an affiliation program that would bring affiliate members to Cornell for organized conferences and consulting privileges. Business-University Partnerships I 197 Before embarking on the program, Cornell did a survey to see if there were representatives from industry involved in biotechnology research at Cornell. Provost Robert Barker discovered that there were five-all from Japan. And they had been sent by Japanese corporations. They were not junior scientists here for a little trimming up before they started their industrial jobs; most of them had been...