University Research

During the 1980s, the increasing importance of university research to technological innovation forged new links among industry, academia, and government. The federal government spent $9.6 billion sponsoring research at universities in fiscal year 1990, while business outlays for such research topped $1 billion that year. Closer ties between universities and the private sector raise concerns, however, about possible conflicts of interest or other relationships that might give businesses inappropriate access to and therefore an unfair advantage in commercializing the results of federally funded research. Requiring that investigators and other key personnel disclose outside interests as part of the grant award process, which both the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation are considering, is an essential first step toward improving university management controls over potential conflicts of interest. But GAO believes that additional steps are warranted to strengthen these controls and to address the ability of industrial liaison program members to get advance access to the results of federally funded research.

GAO found that: (1) during fiscal years 1989 and 1990, the 35 surveyed universities granted 197 exclusive licenses and 339 nonexclusive licenses for NIH- or NSF-funded technologies, earning $29.3 million from exclusive licenses and $52.7 million from nonexclusive licenses; (2) most of the universities have substantially expanded their programs to transfer technology to businesses over the last decade; (3) although not necessarily inappropriate, the relationships between licensees and universities are becoming increasingly complex, with scientists owning licensees' stock and industrial liaison program members receiving exclusive licenses; (4) 24 of the 30 universities with industrial liaison programs reported having at least one foreign company member; and (5) industrial liaison program members frequently had advance access to research results. GAO also found that: (1) NIH and NSF rely on funding recipients to establish policies and procedures to resolve and report potential conflicts of interest, and do not review universities' policies and procedures; (2) 14 universities rely on faculty and other university members to voluntarily disclose potential conflicts of interest, while the other 21 universities require faculty to disclose outside interests or the existence of potential conflicts of interest; and (3) both NIH and NSF are considering alternatives to strengthen their guidelines for universities and other funding recipients to better control potential conflicts of interest.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone: