Rethinking Science, Policy
Kinks in the Triple Helix: legal complexities of moving from bench to bedside
About the Seminar
February 19, 2026 9:00am—10:30am
Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff proposed the triple helical model of innovation (government, industry, and academe) three decades ago. Previously, Vannevar Bush attributed victory in World War II to successful partnerships among the three strands, and proposed that creation of new knowledge through research was a crucial government responsibility. Biomedical research subsequently grew by several orders of magnitude, driven by public investment, transformation of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, and the emergence of biotechnology. Yet, key kinks in the triple helix have never been fully untangled: who owns what, who should capture the returns from new goods and services, who receives credit for their creation and development, how does the public ultimately benefit from the research “investments” made with their tax dollars, and what ownership stake, if any, do individuals have in their genes, genomes, and even malignant cancers? This talk explores concrete cases, enduring legal and policy dilemmas, and current proposals shaping how discoveries move from bench to bedside.
Links
Past Series
-
November 18, 2025 9:00am
Rethinking Measuring and Communicating Societal Impacts
Susanna Campbell
-
October 08, 2025 9:00am
Rethinking the Outcomes of University Research
David Guston
-
September 24, 2025 9:00am
Rethinking the Outcomes of Biomedical Research
Jeffrey Alexander
-
May 20, 2025 9:00am
Rethinking the NIH: Indirect Cost Recovery Policy
Bhaven N. Sampat
-
March 31, 2025 9:00am
Rethinking Taste and Odor in Drinking Water: From Obstacle to Opportunity
Christy Spackman, Susheera Pochiraju
-
March 20, 2025 9:00am
Rethinking Technology Assessment: Policy Signal vs. Noise
John Alic
-
April 24, 2025 9:00am
Rethinking Containment: Deliberately Released Genetically Engineered Organisms
Emma Frow, Dalton George
-
October 03, 2024 3:30pm
Carbon Removal Social [Science]
Holly Buck, Sara Nawaz, Rory Jacobson, Marcela Mulholland, Amanda Borth
-
June 04, 2024 12:00pm
Hopeful Climate Futures through Speculative Storytelling: Decolonizing Global Climate Action
Chinelo Onwualu, Joey Eschrich
