A new industry creation and originality: Insight from the funding sources of university patents

Scientific breakthroughs coming from universities can contribute to the emergence of new industries, such as in the case of biotechnology. Obviously, not all research conducted in universities leads to a radical change from existing technological trajectories. Patents and patent dynamics have long been recognized as critical in understanding the emergence of new technologies and industries. Specifically, patent citations provide insight into the originality of a discovery that has received patent protection. Yet while a large body of literature addresses the impact of patent originality on various firm performance measures, we address the question of what conditions drive patent originality in the process of knowledge creation within the university. Using data on patented cancer research, we examine how research context – as reflected by the funding source for each scientist – is associated with patent originality. We find that when university scientists are partly funded by their own university, they have a higher propensity to generate more original patents. By contrast, university scientists funded either by industry or other non-university organizations have a lower propensity to generate more original patents. The significance of our findings in the cancer research setting call for further research on this question in other research fields.     

规范医院科研经费管理与提升科研课题绩效研究

通过对广西壮族自治区人民医院历年规范管理与科研课题绩效的考察,结果表明,规范管理对科研绩效的提高有重要促进作用。应遵循科技发展规律,建立科学,高效的科研管理机制,完善科研管理制度体系,提高科研管理水平,保证科研总目标的顺利实现,使管理行为产生最大的经济效益和社会效益。     

Performance-based university research funding systems

The university research environment has been undergoing profound change in recent decades and performance-based research funding systems (PRFSs) are one of the many novelties introduced. This paper seeks to find general lessons in the accumulated experience with PRFSs that can serve to enrich our understanding of how research policy and innovation systems are evolving. The paper also links the PRFS experience with the public management literature, particularly new public management, and understanding of public sector performance evaluation systems. PRFSs were found to be complex, dynamic systems, balancing peer review and metrics, accommodating differences between fields, and involving lengthy consultation with the academic community and transparency in data and results. Although the importance of PRFSs seems based on their distribution of universities’ research funding, this is something of an illusion, and the literature agrees that it is the competition for prestige created by a PRSF that creates powerful incentives within university systems. The literature suggests that under the right circumstances a PRFS will enhance control by professional elites. PRFSs since they aim for excellence, may compromise other important values such as equity or diversity. They will not serve the goal of enhancing the economic relevance of research.     

Commercial science, scientists’ values, and university biotechnology research agendas

Policies designed to promote the commercialization of university science have provoked concern that basic and publicly accessible research may be neglected. Commercialization policies have altered traditional institutional incentives and constraints, which raises new questions regarding the influence of scientists’ values on university research agendas. Our research builds on previous quantitative studies measuring changes in research outcomes and qualitative studies probing differentiation among scientists’ value orientations. We developed a nation-wide survey of 912 plant and animal biotechnology scientists at 60 research universities. Our analysis reveals that scientists’ value orientations on what we classify as “market” and “expert” science affect the amount of industry funding they receive, the proprietary nature of their discoveries, and the percentage of basic science research conducted in their laboratories. We also find that the percentage of industry funding is significantly associated with more applied research. Our findings provide insights for science and society theory and suggest that strong incentives for public-science research along with adequate public-research funds to preserve the university's vital role in conducting basic and non-proprietary research are needed to complement private-sector research investments at universities.     

Explaining Australia’s increased share of ISI publications—the effects of a funding formula based on publication counts

Australia’s share of publications in the Science Citation Index (SCI) has increased by 25% in the last decade. The worrying aspect associated with this trend is the significant decline in citation impact Australia is achieving relative to other countries. It has dropped from sixth position in a ranking of 11 OECD countries in 1988, to 10th position by 1993, and the distance from ninth place continues to widen.The increased publication activity came at a time when publication output was expected to decline due to pressures facing the higher education sector, which accounts for over two-thirds of Australian publications. This paper examines possible methodological and contextual explanations of the trends in Australia’s presence in the SCI, and undertakes a detailed comparison of two universities that introduced diverse research management strategies in the late 1980s. The conclusion reached is that the driving force behind the Australian trends appears to lie with the increased culture of evaluation faced by the sector. Significant funds are distributed to universities, and within universities, on the basis of aggregate publication counts, with little attention paid to the impact or quality of that output. In consequence, journal publication productivity has increased significantly in the last decade, but its impact has declined.     

Academic breeding grounds: Home department conditions and early career performance of academic researchers

This study investigates how research group characteristics relate to the early career success of PhD candidates who are trained in the group. In particular, I study how the citation impact of early-career PhDs is related to the staff composition and funding of the group. Using data on a cohort of Swedish doctoral graduates in science, engineering, mathematics and medicine, two sets of findings are obtained. First, students who were trained in groups with a lower number of PhD students perform better in terms of academic productivity. From the perspective of research policy, this finding suggests a decreasing return to funding additional PhD student positions allocated to professors who are already maintaining larger research groups. Second, PhD students trained in groups with funding for PhD research that is conditioned by funder influence over the topic of thesis research are more likely to stay in academia. Controlling for career destination, however, PhDs from such groups have lower than average scientific productivity and citation impact. These results suggest that funders of PhD studies face a trade-off between the two different funding objectives of “getting what they want” in terms of research content and fostering successful scholars.     

University research funding and publication performance—An international comparison

In current science policies, competition and output incentives are emphasized as a means of making university systems efficient and productive. By comparing eight countries, this article analyzes how funding environments of university research vary across countries and whether more competitive funding systems are more efficient in producing scientific publications. The article shows that there are significant differences in the competitiveness of funding systems, but no straightforward connection between financial incentives and the efficiency of university systems exists. Our results provoke questions about whether financial incentives boost publication productivity, and whether policy-makers should place greater emphasis on other factors relevant to high productivity.     

Performance-based research funding: Evidence from the largest natural experiment worldwide

A performance-based research funding system (PRFS) is a nationwide incentive scheme that promotes and rewards university research performance through competition for government funding. The UK’s PRFS, currently the Research Excellence Framework (REF), is considered the oldest, largest and most developed payment-by-results system in academia worldwide. Surprisingly, and despite the strong criticisms, little has been done to quantitatively and casually evaluate the intended and unintended effects of the PRFSs. In this paper, we evaluate the incremental impact of the REF 2014 in the fields of Economics and Business. We use a synthetic control method to compare the performance of UK universities with their artificial counterfactual units constructed using data from US universities. Our analysis shows, on the whole, that the introduction of the REF had a significant and positive impact on the quantity and quality of the scientific research produced at UK universities. However, we do not find a significant effect on the per author measures, suggesting that the REF did not result in an increase in research productivity. We also show that the effects are more heterogeneous across universities than across academic disciplines. We do not find evidence of a shift of research focus from Economics to Business topics, as some feared. But our analysis indicates that the REF 2014 may have contributed to the concentration of research excellence in elite institutions.     

Beyond breakthrough research: Epistemic properties of research and their consequences for research funding

The aim of this paper is to initiate a discussion about links between epistemic properties and institutional conditions for research by providing an exploratory analysis of such links featured by projects funded by the European Research Council (ERC). Our analysis identifies epistemic properties of research processes and links them to necessary and favourable conditions for research, and through these to institutional conditions provided by grants. Our findings enable the conclusion that there is research that is important for the progress of a field but is difficult to fund with common project grants. The predominance and standardisation of grant funding, which can be observed about many European countries, appears to reduce the chances of unconventional projects across all disciplines. Funding programmes of the ‘ERC-type’ (featuring large and flexible budgets, long time horizons, and risk-tolerant selection processes) constitute an institutional innovation because they enable such research. However, while the ERC funding and other new funding schemes for exceptional research attempt to cover these requirements, they are unlikely to suffice.     

Engaging excellence? Effects of faculty quality on university engagement with industry

We investigate how universities’ research quality shapes their engagement with industry. Previous research has predominantly found a positive relationship between academics’ research quality and their commercialization activities. Here we use industry involvement measures that are broader than commercialization and indicate actual collaboration, i.e. collaborative research, contract research and consulting. We hypothesise that the relationship between faculty quality and industry engagement differs across disciplines, depending on complementarities between industrial and academic work, and resource requirements. Using a dataset covering all UK universities, we find that in technology-oriented disciplines, departmental faculty quality is positively related to industry involvement. In the medical and biological sciences we find a positive effect of departmental faculty quality but establish that this does not apply to star scientists. In the social sciences, we find some support for a negative relationship between faculty quality and particularly the more applied forms of industry involvement. The implication for science policy makers and university managers is that differentiated approaches to promoting university-industry relationships are required.     

Startups by recent university graduates and their faculty: Implications for university entrepreneurship policy

Earlier research on the role of universities in fostering entrepreneurial economic development almost exclusively covers spin-offs by faculty and staff. In contrast, we provide general evidence from the U.S. showing that the gross flow of start-ups by recently graduated students with an undergraduate degree in science or engineering is at least an order of magnitude larger than the spin-offs by their faculty, that a recent graduate is twice as likely as her Professor to start a business within three years of graduation, and that the graduates’ spin-offs are not of low quality. Three case studies illustrate how universities may stimulate science and engineering students and recent graduates to create new firms of high quality. We conclude that transforming university goals and practices toward increasing start-ups led by faculty might not be the most effective way for universities to stimulate entrepreneurial economic development.     

欧洲研究理事会的资助模式与成效分析

快速发现并准确地把握研究前沿、引领科技成果的重大突破是目前政府资助机构、学术界以及产业界共同关注的焦点。基于全球范围内科学研究范式的转变,以欧洲研究理事会(ERC)为研究对象,分析其战略定位、资助类型、选题/评审机制、项目管理流程以及资助评估办法,通过资助报告和文献计量对其资助类型、获资助国家/机构、学科领域、SCI论文产出、合作机构等进行探索性分析。基于ERC运行实践,从聚焦前沿研究、完善同行评议、重视资助评估、鼓励自由探索四方面总结其成功做法与经验。     

高校技术转移对科研产出的影响效应研究——科研资助的中介作用与调节作用

技术转移作为高校社会服务职能的重要体现形式，对高校科研活动究竟产生了何种影响是学术界关注的热点问题。本文以2008-2014年中国106所“211”及省部共建高校为样本，研究了高校技术转移对其论文产出和专利产出的影响效应，并对不同来源的科研资助（政府资助和企业资助）在高校技术转移与科研产出关系中的中介作用和调节作用分别进行了实证检验。结果表明：（1）高校技术转移对论文产出的影响不显著，而对专利产出具有显著正向影响；（2）高校技术转移对其获取政府资助和企业资助均具有显著的正向影响，政府资助和企业资助在高校技术转移与专利产出关系中发挥积极的中介作用；（3）政府资助对高校技术转移与论文产出的关系具有显著的负向调节作用，而企业资助对高校技术转移与专利产出的关系具有显著的负向调节作用。     

基础研究的应用导向与投入渠道多元化研究

随着基础研究对下游技术创新的作用日益深化,现实应用已成为基础研究的重要导向;在这一背景下,运用熵测度法,采用Shannon指数和Gini-Simpson指数,测度分析了基础研究投入渠道的演进过程;研究表明,美国基础研究投入渠道呈现出多元化的趋势,而中国基础研究的投入渠道还很单一,为解决基础研究投入不足的问题,需要实现投入渠道的多元化。     

The influence of knowledge-based resources and business scholars’ internationalization strategies on research performance

This study investigates how business research scholars’ internationalization strategies influence their research performance and how this relationship is moderated by the availability of different knowledge-based resources. The authors analyze citations to journal articles authored by business research scholars with German affiliations and examine how the number of citations is determined by international collaborations and a researcher's knowledge resources in terms of language skills, research experience, and foreign market knowledge. The results demonstrate that the augmentation of complementary knowledge resources (i.e., when researchers lack language skills and foreign market knowledge) positively influences the performance of a collaboration-based internationalization strategy (i.e., collaborations with international researchers). The collaboration-based strategy also improves performance for less experienced researchers, but this advantage diminishes with increasing research experience. The findings provide further insights into drivers of scholars’ research performance and have practical implications for science policy.     

The influence of university departments on the evolution of entrepreneurial competencies in spin-off ventures

The influence of the university department upon spin-off venture evolution is complex and dynamic. We examine how the university department context influences the spin-off process from the perspectives of both the spin-off venture and the department. By comparing the development of entrepreneurial competencies within spin-offs based in different departments at the same universities we observed significant differences in early venture performance. Small differences in initial departmental support from management and senior academics for gaining commercial experience and spending time exploring the commercial opportunity were seen to have a major impact upon the subsequent spin-off development path. Supported ventures gained momentum as the department helped develop entrepreneurial competencies and influenced how these competencies were developed from external actors outside the department. By contrast, a lack of departmental support for entrepreneurship severely constrained the evolution of spin-offs regardless of university level policies and practices. This emphasizes the need for a shift in focus from the well-studied university level to the relatively neglected department level to help explain institutional differences in university spin-off activity.     

启示与思考:英国大学科研的政府资助体系

英国政府通过"双重资助系统"对大学科研提供基础条件拨款和项目拨款,保持和提升大学进行科学研究的实力。上世纪90年代以来,大学科研投入的多样化改变了大学科研投入结构原有的平衡,威胁到大学科研的可持续发展。为了改变这种局面,英国政府大幅增加了对大学的科研投入,并改革了科研拨款办法。研究英国政府对大学科研的资助体系,对于改革和完善我国现有的大学科研拨款体制和经费管理体制具有积极的意义。     

Development of university life-science programs and university-industry joint research in Japan

How are new university educational programs established in response to expanding sciences and how do they promote university-industry (UI) joint research? To study these questions in relation to life sciences and biotechnology, we first compiled the data on the establishment of new undergraduate and graduate programs on these fields in Japanese universities since the 1950s. We then analyzed statistically whether and how such establishment contributed to the occurrence and frequency of UI joint research in biotechnology. We found that the expansion of such university programs in fact contributed to the promotion of UI joint research. We also confirmed that, even with this contribution controlled, UI joint research projects increased following the 1998 legislation to promote technology transfer from universities (the so-called TLO Act) and the 1999 legislation to allow universities to retain rights on their inventions made with government research funds (the so-called Japanese Bayh-Dole Act).     

国立科研机构经费使用效益比较研究

本文基于投入-产出类型评价分析方法,构建了国立科研机构经费使用效益分析模型,评价了8个国家16个国立科研机构经费使用效益,并对德国马普学会和印度科学与工业研究理事会进行了典型分析。研究结果表明,本文采用的模型基本适用于国立科研机构经费使用效益评价。采用"以市场为导向,对外竞争经费匹配模式"和"倡导科学自治,基于人的经费配置模式"的国立科研机构经费使用效率显示出一定优势。此外,本文也指出了进一步完善国立科研机构经费使用效益分析模型的方向。     

Combining entrepreneurial and scientific performance in academia: towards a compounded and reciprocal Matthew-effect?

The increase of entrepreneurial activity within academia has raised concerns that the research orientation of universities might become ‘contaminated’ by the application-oriented needs of industry. Empirical evidence on this concern is scarce and ambiguous. We examine whether entrepreneurial and scientific performance in academia can be reconciled. Our empirical findings (KU Leuven, Belgium) suggest that both activities do not hamper each other; engagement in entrepreneurial activities coincides with increased publication outputs, without affecting the nature of the publications involved. As resources increase, this interaction becomes more significant, pointing towards a Matthew-effect. We finally suggest that balancing both activities further depends on the institutional policies deployed.