"Is University Research Missing What Matters Most?"

"when research applications don’t involve products, patents, and profits, the record can be tougher to quantify. Academic research endorses physical activity and warns against economic divides, but obesity and wide disparities in opportunity persist. Dozens of university studies examine conflict resolution, but the United States still engages in wars. Other well-studied but seemingly intractable societal troubles include pervasive violence, mental stress, environmental toxins, and educational underachievement.

In short, university scientists have shown they’re good at turning research into products, and they’re getting better by the day. But are researchers, and their funders, making the same effort to translate the work of greatest benefit to society?...

money is not the only barrier to university researchers’ bringing their findings into the real world. Often their attempts to do so are compromised by personal, professional, political, and institutional imperatives and traditions."
http://chronicle.com/article/Is-University-Research-Missing/235028/?key=llhe9QsDZL370bOqztwjxB8556UgE0flBVgoZl_KEi5PcVQyamZuZUdySWtIdTB6WW9MckQydHFfV1E3czMtZTVnQTdLT2tOVjJN