I am writing a news story for a major research journal about how
universities
handle family donations to set up large, free-standing research
institutes. What I'm told is that some universities are allowing the
creation of free-standing institutes that may not be under university
control or may not fit in with the mission of the university. Some
scientists worry that these well-funded institutes can sometimes
dominate sometimes poorly-funded academic departments they are linked
to. For example, since they have more money the hire faculty, the
institutes - which may have different priorities than the department
-- may dominate hiring decisions. In other cases, the universities give
the institutes a share of any potnetial tech transfer royalites.
I'm looking for some feedback on this from working scientists. Do you
think this is happening? If so, can you point out an example? Or do you
think that universities do a good job of setting up these institutes,
which need their independence to find new ways of pursuing science.
If you have any thoughts on this, please send a note to
tinkerr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
