Thank you Anthony - a timely and mostly serious challenge for the research community. I'd add a couple of other things to ponder: 'publish or protect' - and in what order? Also while the founding ideas are often critical, businesses are 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration, so how should the financial and economic rewards from taxpayer-funded research be shared out?
I guess with 'publish or protect' the question is: what maximises the long-term impact of the work? Often, publication is best, but not universally. I agree on 99% perspiration. I am happy with 1% on my billion pound 'exit'!
Thank you profserious, you are addressing a lot of very interesting points and I agree with most of them. However, I probably did not understand this statement:
"I will not give away knowledge, in the pursuit of which the UK taxpayer has invested millions, for a small, supposedly unrestricted, donation from a Chinese corporation."
International collaboration is a de-facto standard in Universities, with many researchers from UK institutions working with Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. and their grants (that are typically unrestricted donations). Are you targeting China for a particular reason? How do you discriminate between "good" and "bad" companies? Some may argue that Facebook (now Meta) is not in the "good" list.
The US option is to have list of forbidden countries, are you thinking of something similar?
Yes, I am targeting China for a particular reason. Because they have engaged in systematic theft of IP. US tech platforms have in general not done this. Knowing who is good and who is bad demands the exercise of ethics first. Complying with export control is, of course, generally advised!
Thank you Anthony - a timely and mostly serious challenge for the research community. I'd add a couple of other things to ponder: 'publish or protect' - and in what order? Also while the founding ideas are often critical, businesses are 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration, so how should the financial and economic rewards from taxpayer-funded research be shared out?
I guess with 'publish or protect' the question is: what maximises the long-term impact of the work? Often, publication is best, but not universally. I agree on 99% perspiration. I am happy with 1% on my billion pound 'exit'!
I love this! Can I share on LinkedIn?
Thank you, of course!
Well said Anthony!
Thank you profserious, you are addressing a lot of very interesting points and I agree with most of them. However, I probably did not understand this statement:
"I will not give away knowledge, in the pursuit of which the UK taxpayer has invested millions, for a small, supposedly unrestricted, donation from a Chinese corporation."
International collaboration is a de-facto standard in Universities, with many researchers from UK institutions working with Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. and their grants (that are typically unrestricted donations). Are you targeting China for a particular reason? How do you discriminate between "good" and "bad" companies? Some may argue that Facebook (now Meta) is not in the "good" list.
The US option is to have list of forbidden countries, are you thinking of something similar?
Yes, I am targeting China for a particular reason. Because they have engaged in systematic theft of IP. US tech platforms have in general not done this. Knowing who is good and who is bad demands the exercise of ethics first. Complying with export control is, of course, generally advised!