With the pool of federal funds for research steadily shrinking, an increasing number of academic scientists these days are going after corporate grants. Corporate money can be especially beneficial to new assistant professors trying to launch research careers, investigators whose federal grants have been reduced or eliminated, or those seeking to leverage one source of funding with another. Although the number of university researchers seeking grants from industry may have increased recently, the phenomenon of university-academic links is nothing new. Academics traditionally have formed relationships with people in the corporate world for a variety of reasons. Such relationships have provided jobs for students, up-to-date teaching material, consulting income, summer research opportunities, and royalty income through the commercialization of inventions. At the same time that pressures on academics to find funding are greater and traditional sources of research funding have become harder to tap, the stereotypes and fears about industrial control...
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