In an interesting analysis on the Science Progress website Profs. B. Godin and J.P. Lane deplore that federal R& D expenditures strongly emphasize the R component and do not support commercialization. However, the authors seem to make the assumption that what is good for business is also good for society. Certainly we want to expedite conversion of basic research to useful and desirable products, but in many cases commercial definition of what is desirable is very questionable. Think of the auto industry's long fights against seat belts or increased fuel efficiency for example. Translational research, moving ideas from the lab to the clinic, is a key topic in biomedical research circles these days. Unfortunately no one knows how to do it very well. I suspect the same is true in other areas of R & D. Probably increased federal support for commercialization of key technologies would be a good thing as long as there is some thought given as to which technologies are best for society and not just for the bottom line of particular corporations.
. http://scienceprogress.org/2012/06/is-america%E2%80%99s-science-technology-and-innovation-policy-open-for-business/
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