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Mexico's Free Trade Agreement with the US may be responsible for fostering research in Mexico by making it easier to import equipment from North America. The Mexican research establishments hope to recruit technocrats from Central Europe and Russia to overcome the shortage of qualified scientists and engineers. Despite the recent assassination of a presidential candidate, the improvement of Mexico's science may continue.

Academic institutions can be made beneficial to the biotechnology industry through the transfer of information, technical expertise, materials and potential products. Commercialization of research is very important not only for the inventors, but also for the university and the industry. The universities, to be more actively involved in this process, should employ expert patent agents, who will be superior to university administrators in the area of technological transfer, will educate academicians on various ways of patenting and commercialization and help file preliminary patent applications.

SIR--Your Editorial 'Unbalanced portfolio' (Nature 453, 1144; 2008) defends the scientific autonomy of researchers against pressure from bureaucrats seeking maximum economic returns. Although this position is admirable and likely to [...]

Funding jitters rife ahead of government spending review., Author(s): Daniel Cressey Author Affiliations: Chancellor George Osborne (left) has tried to reassure scientists such as Paul Nurse (right), head of the Francis Crick Institute. Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images [...]

A concordat announced by the UK's university vice-chancellors and research funding councils in 1996 is slowly being realized in practice. The concordat aims to underpin the provision of employment rights and support for postdoctoral and other contract researchers. The concordat does not address pay scales as its focus is on maternity leaves, salaries that reflect experience and seniority, adequate training and conscientious monitoring of progress and career advice. Although the concordat was actively promoted by the UK government, postdoctoral researchers in universities are still getting a better deal than government researchers.

Controversy in the US over academics' access to human gene sequences highlights the inability of academic institutions to accept their members' industrial activities and research dealings with commercial companies. The institutions jeopardize their objective of providing effective academic training by stifling their members' involvement in commercially beneficial research. Academics should be encouraged to remain committed to their work.

The German government has demanded a reduction in the expenses and an increase in the accountability of national research centers. The Hahn-Meitner Institute in Berlin will be the first to stop its nuclear physics and electronics research activities. The German government is faced with financial difficulties due to the re-unification, and its consequent allocation of less funds to research institutes will result in these institutes losing a large number of their staff.

A report prepared by Segal Quince Wicksteed of Cambridge and circulated by the UK Office of Science and Technology (OST) avers that hosting international scientific facilities can be economically gainful for the host country. Britain's Treasury has been disinclined to cater to such facilities in Britain and OST officials hope to urge the Treasury to provide the needed infrastructures and incentives. The analysis shows that between 40 to 70 percent of the money to run the facility was plowed to the host country.

The relationship between basic research and the creation of wealth in a country is discussed. Basic research enables industry and commerce to set their programs for progress. Research councils, with their funds, play a part both by providing a specific direction to research, or by supporting research directions specified by the country's gifted minds. Research councils' spending for basic research must also be integrated with those of certain government departments that have science budgets. The disadvantages of the establishment of the Office of Science and Technology in the UK are discussed.

In a report issued in September 1990, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Science recommended that, since the amount of money available for research is shrinking, funding should be transferred from research and put into training students and building facilities, such as laboratories. The IOM believes that training and facilities are necessary to keep the system alive. The recommendations were made under three scenarios; one, with a budget that contains no increase in funding; second, a budget with a 2 percent increase; and third, a budget with a 4 percent increase in funding. With the first two scenarios, the IOM suggested that training funds should be increased from 4.2 to 5.75 percent of the total budget by 1995, and to 6.75 percent by the year 2000. This shift would result in the loss of 60 research grants (of approximately 5,000) and a gain of 400 new training grants. Funds for construction of facilities would be increased from 0.25 percent to 0.50 percent by the year 2000. Established researchers are expected to be outraged by these recommendations. Another solution is to fund the same number of grants, but not at the full amount requested. Some types of reforms are necessary as the number of researchers is growing and the budget is getting smaller. Congress will hear the advisory panels of the National Institutes of Health present their budget requests, which may include the IOM recommendations. Budget changes are expected to take place within a few months. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

A survey by the United States Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) indicates that conflict continues in the medical community over the proportion of the biomedical research budget allotted to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). Regardless of their views on that issue, most researchers believe that AIDS research has important consequences for other research fields. Almost half of the 148 respondents to the OTA survey 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed' that too much funding had gone to AIDS research at the expense of other fields, but the other half disagreed. Currently, the National Institutes of Health spends about 10 percent of its $7,100 million budget on AIDS-related research. This is more than is spent for heart disease, and close to the amount spent for cancer, both of which cause more deaths than AIDS. However, most respondents to the survey questions felt federal spending on AIDS was appropriate, or too low. This can be interpreted as a sentiment that spending on biomedical research, overall, is too low. More than half the respondents also believed that AIDS research has led to advances in virology, immunology, and molecular biology, while also promoting the development of diagnostics and new drugs. Flexibility was introduced into the AIDS funding procedure by Congress in 1989; NIH directors are now allowed to reallocate AIDS research monies to other areas when they consider it advantageous. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)