Universities in the Age of Corporate Science: The UC Berkeley-Novartis Controversy.

Universities in the Age of Corporate Science: The UC Berkeley-Novartis Controversy

By Alan P. Rudy, Dawn Coppin, et al Temple University Press; 236 pp., $54.50

CORPORATE FUNDING FOR UNIVERSITY REsearch will likely always stir debate. This book resulted from study of a single agreement between the University of California, Berkeley's Plant and Microbial Biology Department and a subsidiary of pharmaceutical and agribusiness conglomerate Novartis. Controversies over the agreement, in effect from 1998 to 2003, bring up broader concerns for higher ed. Similar agreements raise questions about whether corporations should have any role in public universities.

After briefly explaining the why's and how's of the search for alternative funding sources and new revenue generators, the book explores the uproar surrounding the UC Berkeley-Novartis agreement. Three parts of the deal itself came under fire, that: it was with an entire department rather than a single faculty member or small group of faculty; it granted Novartis first license negotiation rights for one-third of all departmental discoveries (including those funded by public entities such as the National Institutes of Health); and it could allow Novartis scientists to earn adjunct status at the university.

Although no misconduct was uncovered by the study, the deal's scrutiny calls for a multilevel and ongoing dialogue on the future of land grant and research universities, the authors note.