Mutually Beneficial Posted on November 21, 2007 Working with industry can be helpful so long as the work meets certain criteria, explains Andrew A. Nierenberg (bio).

The pros and cons are that particularly with industry, especially with somebody starting out, it can be very difficult just to have their idea be accepted by an industry and to be funded. Again, it’s helpful to work along with somebody who already has those relationships.

The most important thing is that the science has to be of high quality. Tthere has to be freedom to be able to publish any result, whether positive or negative, and it has to be mutually beneficial. Otherwise the person who’s starting out could just be a cog in a machine and end up getting nothing out of it except some funding, and usually that’s not worth it.

Possible ethical problems that can come up in one’s relationship with industry is that you have to make sure that the work is honest, meaning that the research itself is not biased because there are studies that can be structured that at the beginning and within the structure favors the industries’ product, and that’s simply not right.

You have to make sure that the study is good and that it really is a fair test of whatever hypothesis is being looked at. And you have to be very careful about the line between good science and marketing because a lot of the studies are marketing driven. But there’s a sweet spot, and the sweet spot is where there is good science, it also helps the company, it also helps the field, and it can help your career.

« Back to Article