Introduction

Graduate students may find themselves working on projects involving funds from private firms. There are at least two reasons for this possibility. On the one hand, administrators encourage faculty to collaborate with industrial colleagues. On the other hand, research has become increasingly expensive, in part because today’s projects often require large interdisciplinary teams. Partnerships involving researchers from the for-profit sector can lead to benefits for all parties. But they can also give rise to unforeseen problems.

To manage the relationships, universities have created Contracts and Grants office (your office may have another name, such as Sponsored Programs). These units oversee agreements in which personnel, resources, and facilities not under the university’s jurisdiction are necessary. The unit is charged to protect the interests of the university. It may be permissible for faculty to receive honoraria, consulting fees, royalties, and even equity positions from outside sources, but these interests may put graduate students and postdocs into difficult positions. The mission of Contracts and Grants is to manage these relationships throughout the processes of submitting proposals, soliciting and receiving funds, conducting the research, and publishing and commercializing the results.

Collaborative arrangements have obvious advantages. For example, joint efforts can result in knowledge moving quickly from laboratories to patient care. However, they also have obvious risks. Faculty can become involved in conflicts of interests, and graduate students may consequently find themselves in the middle of competing expectations. Students have interests in publishing their research quickly, whereas private sponsors have interests in keeping the results confidential and proprietary. Sometimes these values work together for everyone’s benefit. At other times, however, they pull in opposite directions.