Governments have long encouraged university–industry collaboration, hoping to spur innovations that bring jobs, investment and life-enhancing products1. At the same time, shrinking government budgets for science have forced universities to look to other sources of funding. According to the US National Science Foundation, in 2012, industry supplied just over 5% (some US$3.2 billion) of US research universities' annual expenditure2.
Image: by David Parkins
