Industry relationships of DoD-funded academics and institutional changes in the US university system

This paper describes an empirical study of the differences in industry interaction of US tenure and tenure-track academics that are funded by civilian and military funding agencies. Significant differences in industry interaction as manifested in a range of different interaction types can be observed between academics funded by Department of Defense (DoD) resources and those enjoying other non-military means of support. The policy implications of these divergent patterns of behavior in university-industry interactions will be analyzed and discussed. Furthermore, a qualitative assessment of changes in university-industry relationships in response to more stringent DoD contracting practices reveals that several types of industry interaction will be adversely affected.