Large-scale partnerships between industry and universities ought to be avoided completely, according to the author of an external report investigating such a deal at the University of California at Berkeley. Although the arrangement provided cash that energized research, the report says, it created conflicts of interest within the university. The report was commissioned by the university's academic senate and conducted by Lawrence Busch, an agricultural sociologist at Michigan State University, East Lansing. It looks in detail at a controversial deal struck in 1998 between the university and a Swiss firm now known as Syngenta. The five-year agreement saw Syngenta contribute US$25 million to facilities and the funding of faculty at the university's department of plant and microbial biology, in exchange for the right to capitalize on their discoveries. The deal ended last year; Syngenta officials say it was abandoned owing to a change in company strategy.
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