I am not certainly sure about how the research is approached in industry, but I assume it would be fast paced research, where deadlines has to be met and the research has to be done as fast as possible. While in academia, from my personal experience, its slow paced. The professors, post-doc students, masters students ect. will get together talk about the project and will work on their respective project on their own time.
I agree with many like @gaberuiz13 and @su65 that academic research is for the passion and thrill of discovery and answering questions for unknowns in their field. However I think there is a generalization that non-profits have slow moving pre-clinical research, and that's no always the cases. At Sloan Kettering our top investigators are moving at an incredible pace- to publish, file IP and get into clinical trials. Especially in the field of oncology, there is a lot of funding available to move these pre-clinical projects quickly to clinical trials. From making CAR-T cells to a new humanized antibody, the research moves very quickly because they have the expertise and funds to move projects forward.
Industry even sponsors research under a Sponsored Research Agreement. This is a way for non-profit research to be done faster, and if successful the Industry has an option to license the IP coming out of the project. Major pharma companies like BMS, Novartis, Plexxicon, etc routinely do this with non-profits. I don't believe there is a "better' option. Industry needs the innovative non-profit scientists to help create, optimize their products, and perform clinical trials and non-profits require Industry to help move their research forward whether it be funding a project or proving a companies' materials for research use.
An example of the differences in mission is that industry is in the business of making money. Whereas at Sloan Kettering we regularly say we are in the business of putting ourselves out of business. Curing cancer is the end goal, not making X amount of money.
Research in academia and industry both has its advantages and disadvantages. I have only been exposed to the academia portion of research as a student at NJIT. However, as mentioned in the lecture, there is little pay. However, there is a lot more freedom when deciding what research project should be done. It can lead to great results, such as a published paper, and if lucky even a Noble Peace Prize. In industry, you have to follow a set of rules from the company and can be given only a set amount of money to use in order to get the results of the project. There is also a lot more pay in a industry job, reaching up to 60,000 dollars, which is a huge jump from a job in academia. In the long run, I do believe researching in industry has a better pay-off (quite literally). It provides you with the satisfaction of security and provides you the necessary resources to work towards a company goal. Although academia is something a lot of people continue to work with, I personally could not live off of the low salary.
I think the advantage in research for academia is that it allows for more flexibility for the researcher to explore different ideas and test out different hypotheses. In academia, there are no company deadlines or guidelines when it comes to research allowing the researcher freedom to work. On the other end the researcher industry doesn't have much freedom choosing a course of action as they typically are given strict guidelines on what to accomplish and possibly how to accomplish their tasks. The benefit that comes with research in industry in higher guaranteed salary that comes along with it. Academia research doesn't come with a high guarantee in salary and is much less than industry.
Research in academia is purely one’s passion to do discoveries, inventions and research. Goal remains unknown in academia research. Individual find solutions to their personal problems by doing research, take their own time with no limited time frame unlike in industry research. In industry research, a proper known goal is setup and people work hard to accomplish that in given amount of time. Industry research is money oriented. I feel innovations happen in both academia and industry research. Both type of research help people, it may be shortly or in near future. To say which research is better, It purely depends on individuals opinion and interest on the purpose of research they want to do. For me, academia research is better because I have great passion in academia research which gives me satisfaction
If a laboratory is working on a brand new biomaterial that has never been used in a medical device, according to slide 35 in the Week 3 slide show biocompatibility testing is completed by FDA document ISO 10933-1 thru 18 which describes a framework for the identification of a material the identification and quantification of its chemical constituents. The new material would undergo tests depending on the type of application this material will be used for. Some of the test it may undergo are as follows; cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, irritation, systemic tox, hemocompatibility, implantation, and toxicokinetics. If the material is intended for orthopedic use tests from the third category of ISO 10993, for example cytotoxicity, must be preformed. Including experiments that evaluate the materials interaction with its intended environment, soft tissue, body circulation, atmosphere, etc… ADME testing (Absorption, Distirbution, Metabolism, and Excretion) is done on drugs, biologics, or combination products. In addition to testing the material itself stability testing is required to make sure that each component of the device is stable.
I agree with the relationship that you present about the approaches given to industrial and academic research. As you put it, the purposes of the study conducted in the two areas are different. However, I have a feeling that the research in the industrial sector can also be conducted to solve a problem as it is in academic study. A good example is a case of declining employee performance; the researcher may dig into the cause of the problem and solve them. None of the two areas is more important than the other.
In academic research is flexible and a majority of the research that is done is based on a professor’s or student’s passion to help humanity in some way, shape, or form. And with that passion professor’s/student’s apply for grants in order to get funding for their projects in the hopes that they will accomplish something. This is the type of research I would prefer. I want to work on research that I am passionate about. I believe that when passion and person interest is involved we work harder to accomplish goals.
On the other hand research in industry, according to Dr.Simon, is all about MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, and then humanity. A company works on the projects that will cost less to accomplish but once completed produce profit and not necessary projects that are important/beneficial to humanity. While industrial projects are completed quickly and impact humanity faster than research done in academia but the fact that “helping people” isn’t the number one priority bothers me.
Research is approached in academia and industry through the funding that they are given. The difference is that academia is funded through grants and publications. You cannot miss a deadline for an abstract or proposal for a grant otherwise you will not get the funding to do the research that you’re interested in doing. There are so many people out there that would want to do research through grants and publications because there is so much flexibility in time to finish these papers once the grants are given. However, funding for industry comes from management and the hire ups like marketing. They only budget a certain amount from the company to do research. The marketing team, the managers, and other departments that are depending on your research will always be asking for your results. There is less flexibility in this area of research. There is definitely more pressure in finishing these deadlines during the research compared to academia.
Besides funding, another approach for research in academia and industry is the reason behind why in each area. For academia, many people do it for the passion of research and taking the time to work on their research. This type of research can take multiple years to be readily available for others to use. For industry, many people go this route because of their passion for what the company stands for. Many companies have different causes that they want to be the cure for and help those in need such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, etc. These companies will talk about the causes they want to help with which will give people who want to help in those areas, want to be a part of that company and do research with them. Industry also contributes to society a lot quicker than academia. The medical devices made in companies are more readily available to people in a shorter time span.
Out of these approaches, I find that the reasoning behind why they do the research is more appealing to me. I prefer working in an industry that has a cause and can make their products more readily available to people in a shorter time span. I want to be able to help people more now, than have to wait for many years to have the research and product available to people which is what occurs in academia.
In academia, a project is born out of a desire or a passion you have towards a certain topic. It is done with the intention of discovering things no one has discovered before to help out humans in some way. In industry, however, the driving force behind research is money. The management of a company comes up with a project idea that will fill a gap they identified in the market and do research on that idea to come up with a product that will make profit. Academic research is funded mostly by grants or contract work given by companies whereas industrial research is conducted by a certain budget that is set aside. People working in academia make a lot less money compared to people who work in industry. I have some previous experience in academic research and I liked it for how flexible it was but I think I'd like to go into industrial research for a career because of the better pay.
As discussed in the lectures, research in academia is usually passion driven while research in industry is money driven. Now, which is better? It is up to each individual to decide. What motivates you to work harder? What drives you to push forward and ask questions? Is it something burning within you or is it some appreciation that's around you? As Dr. Simon said, it is choice of lifestyle but the end product or goal is the same and that is to deliver something new and useful.
I would suggest that a BME student try both academia and industry to live out the difference and see which is better for them.
Research in academia versus industry differ in many ways. The first is that industry research is usually aligned with what is high in demand in the market or it must be aligned with the goals of the company. It usually focuses on producing what is needed as soon as possible in comparison to academia research which is less stringent and may be more long term. A lot of times in industry, the research is connected in some way and a delay in one area may cause a delay in others. In academia research, a lot of times the work is independent from your peers. Scientists in industry, may oversee several projects while academia scientists are more limited in the amount of projects they take on. Academia is usually fundamental research while industry is more developmental.
In academia, one approach to research can often be starting a wide variety of projects that all interest you, seeing what has traction. Depending on what interests you the most or what is the most convenient (or needed) project, that project is the one that gets the most traction. It is all up to you as the researcher to define the timeline. In industry however, it's a bit flipped. As mentioned in Dr. Simon's slides, you are given the project, not a bunch of projects that you might be interested in and it is done on the timeline of the company, at the direction/interests of the company; it does not really matter if you are really passionate or want the project gets done. As far as the company is concerned, it needs to get done. Going along with passion, in academia, if you wanted to focus on one specific area for your whole career and do nothing else but focus on that one specific thing, then you could do that, assuming you could fund yourself to do that. However, in industry that is not very efficient, so it is preferred that you research/develop something to the extent that the company needs it. If more focus is needed on the topic, it better be for a good reason (company need, potential failure, etc), because time is money, literally in this context.
As most of the comments have pointed out, research in academia is driven by pure curiosity and a passion for the topic. I found it interesting in the lecture that it is very common for researchers to be out with a friend discussing their interests and they get a new project idea from that.
Research in industry is less driven by curiosity and more as a means to an end. In industry, research is done to complete some project that will make the company money, so it is driven by deadlines. Researchers may work for a company because of their interest in the company mission and goals rather than an interest in the specific research.
I believe it is important to not just distinguish the two worlds separately however incorporate the two worlds together. Both fields have the pros and cons and I believe that it is not correct to choose between the two different fields and say that one way is correct over the other. The fast past and deadline orientated research done in the industry is important for researchers in academia to adopt since lots of projects are created however the resources are not divided up correctly and decelerates the whole process. In academia, there are lots of research projects created however the majority of them takes longer than it should take and some projects even never get finished. For industry research, they should also focus on research not because of the monetary gain however also for curiosity since majority innovation is created from curiosity in my opinion. I believe Google is one of the companies who is adopting this kind of hybrid approach to research and so far they are doing great.
