R&D Privatization Makes it Hard to Put Knowledge to Good Use

A global trend towards profit-seeking research could jeopardise scientific, technological and social progress, warn Andrea Filippetti and Daniele Archibugi. The proportion of R&D spending by the public sector fell considerably in industrialised countries between 1981 and 2011. In the United States public financing of R&D fell from 48 to 31 per cent, in Germany the proportion fell from 42 to 30 per cent, in Japan from 27 to 16 per cent and in the UK from 48 to 30 per cent. R&D as a percentage of GDP has moderately increased, but public funders are becoming too dependent on profit-seeking knowledge development.