ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how values are enacted, negotiated, and transformed within university-industry research partnerships, using a case study from an Australian plant genomics project. Rather than approaching values as static or inherently oppositional (as implied for instance in frequent contrasts between “academic” versus “commercial” or “public” versus “private” research), the authors argue that these partnerships are better understood as sites of “valuing”: Dynamic, situated practices through which priorities, judgments, and normative commitments are continuously co-shaped. Drawing on insights from the philosophy of science in practice, and employing a repertoires framework, the chapter interrogates how epistemic and non-epistemic elements combine in collaborative research settings. It highlights the importance of close empirical attention to research contexts, institutional structures, and disciplinary cultures, showing that tensions arise not only between academia and industry but also within research teams and across institutions. By focusing on how values operate in practice in this rich case study, the chapter contributes to ongoing philosophical debates about the nature of scientific reasoning, the role of institutions and communities in shaping knowledge, and the importance of reflexivity in interdisciplinary and applied science. In doing so, it calls for a more expansive and empirically grounded understanding of values in science.
Readers may be interested in these Handbook chapters as well: Pedro Bravo, “Values and Industry-Funded Research”; Jamie Shaw, “The Values of Science Funding Institutions.”
