Industry is funding more and more research at universities, but students are told relatively little about what goes on behind the lab door: who's funding research, whether it's in the public interest. the pressures that administration and funding put on researchers... Here are some pointers to do some investigating of your own!

Go to the "Research Administration" Dept. and get a list of research contracts:

The list indexed by funder, univ. dept. or researcher (whichever is available and fits your needs)

• Funder types: Federal: This includes the military, such as the Army Research Office (ARO), Office of Naval Research (ONR), Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Air Force Weapons Laboratory (AFWL). The Dept. of Energy and NASA also fund military research. Non-federal (industry, business assoc's., foundations, foreign, state/local gov't.)
• Gifts vs. Grants vs. Contracts: Gifts are donations to the university, and typically have less "strings attached", although they can sway the univ's. interests in the long term. Grants and contracts are for specific research projects -- the researcher submits a proposal and budget, gets accepted, does the research. and submits a final report. Contracts can require specific products from the research.

• Research proposal (from researcher to funder) What will research be used for? Other funders?
• Correspondence (between univ. & funder) Any problems with the funder?
• Research contract (between univ. & funder) Watch out for the following: restrictions on publishing; restrictions on sharing results with other researchers, "proprietary information" given to the researcher by the funder; who gets the nights to any inventions; "no disparagement" clauses where the univ. should have "no adverse impact" on the funder's interests, or "indemnification" clauses where the univ. would agree to compensate the funder if the research produced results which put the funder "at risk".
• Research budget -- Researcher salary? Does funder pay "overhead" or "Indirect" costs? (if not, then the univ. is heavily subsidizing the research -- lab construction, maintenance & research bureaucracy are paid by tax or tuition dollars.)

The research may have been published in a journal, so check the library index. Unintelligible high-tech research topics may be explained more clearly in publications like Aviation Week, Space Technology, National Defense, Army Research, Development & Acquisition, Technology Review and High Technology.

Check out the researcher:

• Researcher databases: Your university may have a database of researcher profiles and interests, in order to match them with gov't or corporate funders. One is the "Community of Science" on the world wide web.
• Conflict of interest: Researchers with federal money should file an "Investigator's Financial Disclosure Form for Federal Projects" with the Research Admin. Dept. or Graduate School. The state may require additional documentation of researchers' financial interests in the research they're doing.
• Talk with the researcher: Most researchers like to talk about that they do. Ask them for a copy of the reports, what the research is for, who else is involved, if the research is what they originally wanted to do, etc. If you are going to publish anything from your conversation you should tell them so.
• Talk with the funder: The research contract should list a "scientific liason" or "project monitor" for the funder -- ask them what the research is for, what other research is being done, etc. Compare the answers with the univ's answers!
• Talk with affected groups: Is the research about some area or group in specific? Contact a citizen's group, professor, gov't official, etc. from there to get their side of the story. Send them information about the research.
• Open records request: If the researcher or university doesn't want to give you information, tell them you'll use the federal "Freedom of Information Act" (FOIA) or state "Open Records" laws o to get it. If this threat doesn't get you immediate access, send a letter (see sample in this packet), with copies to a friendly lawyer (maybe the Am. Civil Liberties Union), administrator or elected representative.

• Minutes from "Board of Trustees" meetings: They usually give the final "OK" to research funding and other corporate ties -- the minutes should give a survey of what's going down.
• University/Industry Relations Office: A univ. office dedicated to linking researchers with industry! Check out their information and any seminars -- find out their annual budget!
• University propaganda: Universities frequently promote their corporate ties in department newsletters, glossy a brochures, annual reports for donors, university newspapers, and alumni magazines.
• University web sites: Lots of information can be organized here to allow keyword searches.
• Corporate annual reports: Check them out at the job placement office, business school or engineering school. They may mention projects at your university.
• University policies: on "extramural" (outside) funding, patent policies & guidelines, research ethics, disclosure of conflict of interest...

• Write an article for the student or local newspaper, or get a reporter to investigate it.
• Use the findings in a meeting with the chancellor about student concerns (especially if chancellor is publicly promoting corporate ties).
• Hold a public forum on research ethics and corporatization of the university, & effect on education.
• Do a "guerrilla theater" skit to raise public awareness: a "marriage from hell" between funder & univ.; chain a giant "corporate dollar" to the lab building; auction off your university to the highest bidder!

• Administration must set an ethical example for the university to follow -- won't happen without encouragement from above
• Emphasize teaching over (or as much as) research in the tenure-granting process.
• Establish minimum teaching requirements and possibly teacher training for professors.
• Institute ethics seminars with professors and student researchers about corporate funding and the university's teaching-scholarship-service mandate.
• Require that corporate funder pay full "overhead" costs for their research (like federal projects do) to cover indirect expenses, so tuition doesn't subsidize corporate research.
• Ensure that the university seek adequate non-corporate funding for research, to give researchers true academic freedom. Funds should have university and citizen oversight to ensure public benefit of research
• Any university- industry relations committee should include graduate & undergraduate student representatives, and specifically address issues of conflict of interest, academic freedom, intellectual property rights and public benefit of research.