Producers as Investors in Agricultural Research: Searching for Alternative Funding Strategies in Land-Grant Universities

This research begins the effort to identify the effect of new models of relationships between producers and researchers in land grant universities in the area of innovation and commercialization. We argue that since producers are becoming increasingly significant funders of university researchers, the benefits of the Bayh-Dole Act could be accelerated for universities if they formed commercialization partnerships with these producers. Contrary to the expectation that allowing such relationships will adversely affect the universities and their researchers, we aim to show that there will actually be a positive benefit to both producers and institutions