Friend or foe A brief examination of the ethics of corporate sponsored research at universities - A response to 'ethics and the funding of research and development at universities'

In his paper entitled "Ethics and the Funding of Research and Development a t Universities" ! Spier examines some of the potential problems of the rela tionship between 1) corporate sponsors of research and 2) the universities land faculty) that receive that funding. Citing "He who pays the piper, cal ls the tune," Spier suggests that a better May of funding research would be to "set up a dedicated publicly sponsored research establishment" with the stated goal of achieving particular technical or engineering objectives. ( Spier cited the successful Animal Virus Research of the UK as an example). Spier states that researchers at these establishments are "not subjected to the triple requirement to teach, reseal ch and administer as are universit y members, so they do not have to face the same ethical challenges of the a cademics." This paper will examine the stated dangers of public/corporate r esearch partnerships and whether the proposed alternative shares equally tr oubling ethical issues.