ABSTRACT
The goal of research is not necessarily to make money, but biomedical research is an expensive proposition regardless of whether this is conducted in an academic environment, government laboratory, or pharmaceutical company, and therefore successful funding is a prerequisite for any scientific advancement. Information transfer may or may not be of a confidential nature. For example, an academic scientist may be invited to present a seminar on his/her work. Material transfer agreements usually allow provision of unique and proprietary compounds to an academic center for studies of specific interest to the academic partner, or material provided to the pharmaceutical company for evaluation. Time constraints in academic research are often very difficult to negotiate, particularly in imaging, since the facilities are usually part of a clinical environment and scheduling of either preclinical or experimental clinical studies need to allow for the clinical requirements of the imaging facility.
