• RickRussell_CA@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    All true, but where is the money for university research coming from?

    I mean, some of those research grants come from the same private companies. There’s value to them in using that money to train the next generation of scientists, in addition to funding basic research they can use directly.

    But, admittedly I don’t claim to know how the research dollars are split between private/government/other.

    EDIT: Here is a study from UCLA covering 2010-2015 funding that shows about 75% of funding comes from government, and 25% from private industry, charities, or other non-government sources.

    • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      The money comes from us, the taxpayers (in Canada anyway), and the students’ tuition fees.

      Scientists have to be careful accepting money from companies as it could be a conflict of interest.

      • RickRussell_CA@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I worked at a US university for 12 years, I can’t speak to what happens in Canada, but here in the US it’s definitely a mix. Student tuition is not used for research at all, at least not in any research program I’ve ever heard of.

        In fact, research grants are garnished (usually to the tune of 30% or more) to pay general university expenses, and student instruction is part of that budget.

        • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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          9 months ago

          Thanks for the info. I suspect the same thing happens with Canadian universities. Almost all levels of government help fund them and would probably deduct research grants and patent fees from funding.

      • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Here in California the big research schools make a LOT of money by licensing to private industry. There are often a number of prominent law suits over research patents with the universities and private industry. The universities very much want to keep their patents and make money from them.

        Looking at the news for CRISPR tells ya a lot about how modern research works and how universities make money.

    • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Depends on the university., but schools with big flagship research departments like Stanford and the California UC systems make a shit load of money by licensing stuff to private industry. Which is why universities like UC Berkeley are fighting legal battles over CRISPR patents - licensing that stuff is going to make the UC system a fuck load of money.

    • EldritchFeminity
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      9 months ago

      I swear I read somewhere that even when companies were at their peak of investing money into research, more than 50% of it in the US was still coming from government funding.