The Effect of Publicly Co-funded Industry-science Collaboration on Scientific Production

There is a large body of convincing evidence on the coevolution of scientific research and commercial opportunities. Based on such evidence, competitive industry-science collaboration programs encourage academic scientists to co-develop innovation projects with firms, combining the attributes of competitive research funding with those of science commercialization programs. Requiring more time and effort from scientists than traditional science funding programs and potentially leading applicants to adopt projects with higher commercial potential, the question arises whether such programs impose a cost on scientific productivity or direction. We find no evidence that they negatively impact science. To the contrary, our results show an increase in top publications, while the direction of research agendas remains unaffected.