Impact of public and private research funding on scientific production: The case of nanotechnology

This article measures the impact of public grants, private contracts and collaboration on the scientific production of Canadian nanotechnology academics. The paper estimates a time-related model of the impact of academic research financing and network structure on the research output of individual academics measured by the number of papers. Results suggest that the effect of individual public funding follows a J-shaped curve. Although contracts have no effects, the impact of patenting follows an inverted-U shaped curve. In addition, a strong central position in the past collaborative network has a positive effect on research output.

► Public funding of academics has an exponential impact on scientific production. ► Contracts have no effects on nanotechnology scientific productivity. ► Too much patenting is detrimental to nanotechnology scientific output. ► Scientific output peaks 16 years into the career of researchers.