Funding of University Research

Universities are key research organizations in modern societies, producing scientific and academic research that guides new research agendas, feeds into PhD training, and contributes to business innovation. Such research produces heavy demands on the time and effort of highly qualified staff and often necessitates use of highly expensive equipment, infrastructure, and materials. Consequently, the level and sources of funding are of vital importance. The main sources of funding are governments, industry partners, and private donors and sponsors. Governments today play increasingly important roles in funding, stimulating, and directing research activity in universities. In doing so, they use a variety of policy instruments, including block grants and specific purpose grants; funding for individual research groups and research centers; establishment of major research centers of excellence; investment in major infrastructure; use of economic incentives and disincentives (including subsidies, pricing structures, taxation concessions, and charges); and regulation (such as legislation relating to intellectual property). In most industrialized countries, there is increased emphasis on establishing national and institutional research priorities, encouraging university research links with industrial partners, and efforts to commercialize university research inventions and discoveries, mainly through licensing of university patents or creation of start-up companies.