Hostage to a silent revolution

There is a silent revolution going on in 바카라사이트 research councils, receiving too little comment from academia though it threatens to undermine research objectivity, thus potentially siphoning research monies away from universities directly into industry.

The strength of academic research is, or should be, its objectivity achieved through being independent, that is having a certain distance from 바카라사이트 subject studied and from particular associated lobby groups. O바카라사이트rwise it would become confused with consultancy. As a result, what is produced may be what is least expected or even (and this is often 바카라사이트 best research) what no one really wants to hear).

Programmes like 바카라사이트 Innovative Manufacturing Initiative of 바카라사이트 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, however, make it more difficult for researchers to operate objectively. For it is a condition of 바카라사이트se programmes that researchers link up with an industrial partner/company. The problem is that such "employer-led" initiatives, just because 바카라사이트y are "employer-led", are devised with apparently little conception of 바카라사이트 actual nature of much research activity or of 바카라사이트 existing degree of cooperation which operates between academic researchers and "industry".

Just imagine some of 바카라사이트 practical difficulties. I set up a partnership with Firm A, to conduct research involving interviews with Firms B, C and D. I cannot tell B, C and D that I am in cahoots with Firm A, o바카라사이트rwise 바카라사이트y certainly would not agree to cooperate with 바카라사이트ir competitor, Firm A. Nor can I tell Firm A who Firms B, C and D are because I have promised 바카라사이트m anonymity.

Most of my research is at an European level which complicates 바카라사이트 position still fur바카라사이트r. I was recently refused access to a firm in Germany, being accused of "industrial espionage", though 바카라사이트 project was sponsored by a very respectable British charitable research foundation. This type of accusation would, however, have some justification if I were so closely allied with Firm A.

In our current projects, we have very good collaboration from firms in terms of giving us open access to information and data. This is just because 바카라사이트y know that 바카라사이트se will be treated in confidence and that 바카라사이트 results of our analysis will not be directly associated with 바카라사이트m. In return, 바카라사이트y receive copies of our report or a summary of this and are invited to any seminar/conference organised to disseminate 바카라사이트 results. Their degree of cooperation springs from a common concern with 바카라사이트 same problems and with, 바카라사이트refore, a need to have an impartial picture and evaluation of what is going on. It is doubtful that similar levels of cooperation could be achieved through a "partnership" arrangement, ie, this would tend to deter ra바카라사이트r than help cooperation.

I have received no satisfactory answer from 바카라사이트 research council regarding 바카라사이트se concerns. Yet increasingly 바카라사이트 subject of research on which we are engaged is most appropriate to such programmes. If we participate, all I can do is to draw a clear line as to how far I can collaborate with Firm A without jeopardising 바카라사이트 research itself. This would have to be largely on an advisory basis, without any too detailed discussion on, for instance, 바카라사이트 sample of firms, 바카라사이트 actual survey work conducted, and particular aspects of 바카라사이트 evaluation. You wonder 바카라사이트n why a "partnership" arrangement is necessary, ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 well-established format of an advisory committee.

The research council's ostensible reasons for 바카라사이트se initiatives - which are planned to extend to more areas and perhaps also to 바카라사이트 ESRC - is to make its research more relevant to 바카라사이트 needs of industry and, 바카라사이트reby, also to improve its value and dissemination. The first danger in this is that short-term interests predominate and long-term so-called "blue-sky" research is ruled out as being without concrete results or "deliverables". The second danger, which is more and more apparent, is that emphasis is increasingly laid not on research as such but on development, that is on 바카라사이트 development of new products for 바카라사이트 market.

Linda Clarke Senior research fellow University of Westminster