Plant Genomics, Commercialization and Environmental Knowledge: Shifting Cultures of Scientific Research - Flagship Project

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CESAGen Theme: Genomics and the Transformation of Knowledge Production

Since its inception plant genetics research has been a field that has depended upon both private and public funding sources. Historically the boundary between basic and applied research in the plant sciences has always been blurred. In the last few decades, however, commercial visions behind much research in the plant sciences have intensified through a combination of new scientific and technological opportunities, the funding of research by global multinational companies, and an increasing use of venture capital for research funding. By the late 20th century an increasing number of research scientists had become more 'entrepreneurial' than ever before, looking more toward commercial applications of their research and finding funding for the commercial support and exploitation of public laboratory science.

The intensification of commercial relationships within the plant sciences, which this CESAGen project is mapping for the UK alone, can be understood in the light of wider structural changes, including international competitiveness, the formation of new science and innovation policies at national and international (e.g. OECD) levels, and the creation and promotion of new discourses around science and innovation, science and wealth creation, knowledge transfer and so on.

Such developments have not occurred without controversy, however. They have provoked debates and reflection around the status and role of public research institutions such as universities and dedicated research laboratories (Kleinman 2003, Thackray 1998). They have also prompted questions particular to the UK plant sciences – asking how shifts towards the effective privatisation of research laboratories impacts upon and shapes the kinds of knowledge produced in those institutions (e.g. Webster 1989).

This project is exploring, through qualitative interview and participant observation methods, the way that practicing plant scientists experience these shifting cultures of knowledge production. Through research within different research laboratories and settings we are:

• tracing the different kinds of industry-research relationships that are being set up in the present time in plant genomics in the UK
• attempting to 'map' (i.e. understand the geography and spatialisation of) commercial exploitation of plant genomics in the UK
• trying to understand how plant genomics scientists are navigating current funding regimes and how they strive towards a basic/applied balance within that climate
• aiming to understand what commercialisation both offers and potentially threatens, within plant genomics scientific research
• aiming to understand implicit models of the utility or public good within plant genomics research, how these models, or 'imaginaries', of the public good come to the surface and are deployed, as well as how they may remain implicit and uncontested.

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