by Ruhee Mehta
Funding is a key component of conducting scientific research. Money is required for the facility where the research is performed, lab equipment like computers and microscopes, as well as the salaries of the researchers. While different projects need different amounts of funding, it is safe to say that without funding research can become difficult, or even impossible to conduct.
In the 1700s and 1800s, scientific research was funded by scientific academies, wealthy patrons and the researchers themselves. The twentieth century saw a shift towards government funding, such as by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Companies also began to fund research for things like drug development, finding and characterizing minerals, using new materials for semiconductors — processes and products that are profitable and give companies an edge in the market. Modern examples of such companies include Google and Amazon. Nonprofits, such as the American Cancer Society, have also entered the ring to assist in funding research for specific diseases, environmental issues and other matters. Today, 60% of all research is funded by industry, with the government and non-profit organizations making up the remaining 40%.
Funding for science is always given with a specific purpose in mind. Typically, these objectives include advancing scientific knowledge, developing drugs and systems that are commercially valuable, and developing medicine and machines that perform functions that help people (such as low-cost water filtration systems). These objectives, in turn, determine the subject of research. If a scientist wants to research a subject that has no clear significance, funding is hard, or even impossible, to acquire. If they want to research topics that have no direct application — for example, the molecular mechanism for gene expression in bacteria — funding is hard to source from industry. However, these topics make up basic science.
Basic science is the type of scientific research underlying all the commercially attractive experimentation that focuses on doing things such as building new aircrafts. The commercially attractive research which develops profitable products is called applicable science. Applicable science is what industry is most interested in, because it is what is most profitable. This means that researchers often tailor their field of study to focus on things which they are sure will be funded. We see this most prominently when researchers are looking for industry funding outright.
Another issue with industry funding can be seen in its tendency to produce results that favor whatever would be more profitable for the company, which is a phenomenon proven in various studies. A famous example is that of the tobacco industry funding scientific research that ‘‘proves that smoking is harmless.’’ This also occurs on less obvious levels, such as studies showing the efficacy of a new company-developed drug over the older one from a rival company. While not always the case, the bias can be a significant concern.
That’s not to say industry funding is bad or wrong — it is an important necessity to continue advancing and developing scientific research. However, the conflict of interest statements required by all academic journals allow the reader to examine methodology with this in mind and understand the results with a discerning eye.
Understanding the circumstances around scientific research is important. Scientific research does not exist in a vacuum, and its focus and the way it is conducted are due to several factors, including history, societal circumstances, current events, biases and how the resources required for it are acquired. It is vital, even as one performs scientific research and benefits from its products, to understand some of the causes shaping its structure and direction.