title: The applied value of public investments in biomedical research.
abstract: Scientists and policy-makers have long argued that public investments in science have practical applications. Using data on patents linked to U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants over a 27-year period, we provide a large-scale accounting of linkages between public research investments and subsequent patenting. We find that about 10% of NIH grants generate a patent directly but 30% generate articles that are subsequently cited by patents. Although policy-makers often focus on direct patenting by academic scientists, the bulk of the effect of NIH research on patenting appears to be indirect. We also find no systematic relationship between the "basic" versus "applied" research focus of a grant and its propensity to be cited by a patent.
authors.affiliation: Harvard Business School, Boston, MA 02163, USA. dli@hbs.edu.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0539-1330
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.|National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6511-4824
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Azoulay
authors.affiliation: National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.|Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Bhaven N
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7387-6706
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Sampat
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007449:Investments; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D010330:Patents as Topic; D014481:United States