Structuring Public–Private Research Partnerships for Success

Gordon Rausser, University of California, Berkeley, US, Holly Ameden, Independent Researcher and Reid Stevens, formerly Texas A&M University, US

• Contents: 1. Public Research Enterprises: The Changing Landscape 2. The Scientific Research Process 3. Public Good Versus Private Good Research: The Empirical Evidence 4. Crowding-in Versus Crowding-out of Public Good Research 5. Knowledge Creation and the Research and Development Process 6. PPRPs: The Benefits and Risks of the Bargain 7. Governance Structures and Collective Decision Making 8. Incomplete Contracts and Control Premiums 9. Impure Goods and the Structure of Contracts 10. The Structural Setting: The Stages of Research and Development 11. Lessons and Recommendations Index

'The landscape for financing research has changed, and continues to change. Universities and other public enterprises are increasingly reliant on support from the private sector through grants, contracts, agreements, and other forms of public-private partnerships, many of which involve some shared interest in the outcome. Navigating this evolving landscape is challenging for participants in the private and public sector alike. Economists and others have written on various aspects, but piecemeal. Structuring Public-Private Research Partnerships for Success is the first comprehensive analysis of the incentive issues that arise in the formation and management of public-private research partnerships (PPRPs). It presents a framework for analyzing the structure of contracts for PPRPs and devising appropriately designed research agreements, supported by in-depth analytical treatment of many of the real-world challenges that arise in this context. This book is an invaluable reference for economists and others who are grappling with how to design research funding institutions that will succeed and enable public research enterprises to continue to flourish and achieve their public purposes in an era of ever-tighter government purse-strings.'--Julian M. Alston, University of California, Davis'Professor Rausser's book is unique in its focus on university efforts to negotiate research funding from the private sector, a crucial concern in this era of vanishing federal funding for basic research. It is especially noteworthy for its rigorous but accessible analyses of the tradeoff between basic and applied research in universities, and the process of bargaining between universities and businesses over research focus and funding. The lessons learned from the case studies analyzed are important to, and should be required reading for, all university administrators concerned about funding research.'--Richard Jensen, University of Notre Dame'Over the last 50 years, we have seen the emergence of an educational-industrial complex where university innovation and knowledge provide the foundation for cutting-edge industrial development. This new book is a must-read to understand the most exciting and controversial chapter in the evolution of the educational-industrial complex, namely, university/industry partnerships. The book provides an insightful conceptual framework for the design of such partnerships and analyzes the implications of actual contracts. The sound use of economic principles in institutional design will help to identify the pitfalls of bad design. The highlights of the book are the fascinating case studies of such arrangements, in particular, the Berkeley/Novartis arrangement. Since university/industry partnerships are likely to proliferate, this book provides essential reading for properly designing these partnerships. The book will be of much interest to both applied and theoretical economists and to practitioners and scholars of research and development and institutional design.'--David Zilberman, University of California, Berkeley