[jrumbut]

Do you think the decline of large corporate R&D efforts is cause or effect here (or is this a false premise)?

I am wondering whether we've seen the reverse of the idea I was originally challenging (if research was valuable it would be a business), where universities captured a profitable business because it was being neglected by the business community (and were distracted from basic research).

[throwmamatrain]

The original concept was that universities were places of basic research, and more translational (read: monetizable) research was thought to be done at corporations.

That theme changed after 2008~ when NIH was flat funded and most universities were gazed upon by the Eye of Sauron for funding. A lot of places that were basic science focused, let's say at the level of studying a set of proteins in mitochondria, had to figure out how to connect the dots to disease or therapeutics. Not everyone made it.

Also, universities got into the game of stacking patents to license. I don't know the arc of that, but I know for sure after 2008 my Office of Technology Transfer was really into it.

Ex before: "We study apoptosis signalling in mitochondria, to understand how mitochondria are related to cell death." After: "We study apoptosis during heart attacks, and how mitochondria contribute to cell death in ischemic conditions."

Something along those lines.