The small size of the small scale market: The early-stage labor market for highly skilled nanotechnology workers

We examine the labor market for the highly trained in nanotechnology and the response of universities toward providing training. We draw comparisons with the labor market and university response in bioinformatics. The demand analysis is based on position announcements in Science in 2002 compared to 2005. We also analyze online position announcements in late 2005 and early 2006. Our analysis leads us to conclude that at the present time the market is small and growing for positions in academe and at FFRDCs, small and stable for positions at firms. Our analysis of training leads to the conclusion that the pipeline is being filled primarily through a principal investigator approach, where a student is attached to one faculty member's lab, rather than to a formal program. The fundamental difference between nanotechnology and bioinformatics in this respect may be due to differences in the opportunities available to universities and faculty.     

Commercializing the laboratory: Faculty patenting and the open science environment

This paper investigates the relationship between patenting and publication of research results by university faculty members. Our study adds to the limited evidence on this topic with an empirical investigation based on a panel data set for a broad sample of university researchers. Results suggest that publication and patenting are complementary, not substitute, activities for faculty members. This is not consistent with recent concerns regarding deleterious effects of patenting on the research output of faculty members. Average citations to publications, however, appear to decline for repeat patenters, suggesting either a decrease in quality or restrictions on use associated in patent protection.     

Does research organization influence academic production?: Laboratory level evidence from a large European university

The paper analyses scientific research production at the laboratory level. The evidence on which the study is based describes precisely the research activity over the period 1993-2000 of more than eighty labs belonging to Louis Pasteur University, a large and well-ranked European research university. The research organization of the labs is analysed by focusing on the characteristics of the research personnel in relation with the scores in two outcomes that are publications and patents. The paper proposes a five-classes typology of laboratories that highlights different styles of research organization and productivity at the laboratory level. It also studies the determinants of the publication performances of labs. We show how appropriate combinations of inputs in academic labs may be strongly associated to high publication performances. We find that combining full-time researchers and university professors in labs tend to preserve incentives. Highly publishing labs also patent. The size of the labs, the individual promotions, and the role of non-permanent researchers and of non-researchers are also underlined.