Abstract
This paper explores the increasing trend towards the commodification of public research and development (R&D) and the impact of this on social wellbeing. In many developed countries, the changes introduced by governments to funding mechanisms for universities and public research institutions has led to a fundamental shift in the focus of public R&D. The focus has shifted from creating useful public, codifiable knowledge to creating a knowledge commodity driven by commercial imperatives. Although there may be an economic argument to be made for the virtues of such change, we argue here that the potential costs to social wellbeing have been largely, and dangerously, ignored.
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Notes
Most of these tables are based on current price. However, they provide significant trends and they do not diminish the relevance of various trends analysed below.
The data for non-EU funding of non-business sector in the UK have been calculated by using the total funding by overseas sources and the funding by EU to the business sector (about 4.6% of the total overseas funding). It is presumed that the non-EU funding sources are largely overseas businesses.
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Baskaran, A., Boden, R. Commodified science and social wellbeing. AI & Soc 21, 267–285 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-006-0058-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-006-0058-1