EXXON RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING COMPANY

POST OFFICE BOX 101

 

 

\V FLORHAM PARK.N.J 07932
EDWARD E. DAVID, JR. TELEPHONE: 765-1257
PRESIDENT (AREA CODE 201)

May 13, 1981

Dear Josh:

Thanks for your note attaching the excerpts from Chemical Week.
Actually I found the staff article somewhat confusing. My assessment
of the situation is that much of industry-university intercourse is on the
basic research level, with the possible exception of the engineering
schools. Some industries are wary of Federal involvement. Very often
that involvement brings with it capricious regulations, irrational red
tape, and constraints which damage the substance of the research.
Beyond that, Federal rules for patents and proprietary rights, parti-
cularly those proposed in several Bills before the Congress, are not
conducive to private investment in research. However, there is enough
flexibility in most of the regulations that these matters need not
preclude a three-way funding arrangement. One such flexibility is
provided by the Federal Grant & Cooperative Agreement Act of 1977.
However, industry largely does consider the Feds as an unreliable
element in the research picture, and I have little hope that can be
changed quickly.

Sincerely,

£4

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
President

Rockefeller University

1230 York Avenue

New York, New York 10020