Thoughts on Politicization of Science Through Commercialization

Abstract

Two genres of outcry in the US concerning the current state of science in public life need to be connected. One is politicization of science in regulatory and research agencies of the federal government; the other is commercialization of academic research. Since the 1990s, commercially funded think tanks have been the primary source for politically charged science policy. But continuing commercialization of academic research threatens to make universities and federal research institutions look similarly political. This development undermines public trust in science, which presents a fundamental challenge for democratic societies. Like the free press and the independent judiciary, trustworthy knowledge is fundamental to the responsible action of informed citizens and their legislators. Its preservation, however, cannot lie in any attempt to recover a strong divide between pure/academic and applied/industrial research. Commercialization is inevitable. To nevertheless mitigate the erosion of public trust, new institutions of evaluative oversight will be required, whether as academic/industrial collaborations or as federal agencies.