# Public funded projects and research that has been a boon to private sector? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 29, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632 "2009-01-29T23:09:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gitfiddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@gitfiddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gitfiddle)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/1 "2009-01-29T23:09:48Z")
I’m just curious about developments or research that has been carried out mostly or totally with government funding whose results have been a boon to the private sector. The best example I can think of is the internet. One caveat: unlike the internet, I’m interested in projects that weren’t paid for with defense funding. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/2 "2009-01-29T23:11:22Z")
GPS has been pretty huge. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/3 "2009-01-29T23:28:13Z")
NASA came up with a lot of technology. Many inventions come of out public university labs. A lot of medical research is done at public universities. Also a lot of inventors and people who start companies are trained in public schools and universities. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/4 "2009-01-30T00:06:12Z")
One example: Intel and AMD now routinely use formal verification, in conjunction with pre-silicon testing, on their processor designs, after the Pentium fdiv disaster cost Intel $500 million to put right. Intel uses HOL light, an interactive theorem prover, for their verification. HOL light’s developed in Cambridge, UK, and descends from other provers, notably Edinburgh LCF, all developed within the UK university system, through EPSRC (previously SERC) grants. The overwhelming majority of research on computerized mathematics occurs within university departments, and industry is only now beginning to use it. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/5 "2009-01-30T00:20:08Z")
[NASA Spinoff magazine](http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/). ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/6 "2009-01-30T03:47:00Z")
A huge chunk of the biomedical industry is based on publicly-funded research. ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/7 "2009-01-30T04:24:06Z")
Google. ---
**Author:** ![gitfiddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@gitfiddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gitfiddle)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/8 "2009-01-30T04:25:57Z")
> [@IAmNotSpartacus](#): > > Google. Google? ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/9 "2009-01-30T04:27:37Z")
As far as I know, most research comes from public funding. There may be a few exceptions, but they are clearly exceptions. Research is an incredibly expensive process and a very poor investment for any company that is not large enough to be considered a government in and of itself. The failure rate for research is just too high. The more fundamental the research is, the higher the failure rate. Even the mega corporations are competing for public money to fund their research. The mega corporations are probably only competing for these grants because they are available and it would be poor business to ignore 4 million dollars, but the fact is they all take the money. Of course, I am including defense funding. I have no idea why you would make that an exception. I think every other seminar I attended was funded by DARPA. You want more energy efficient displays? So does DARPA. You want longer lasting batteries? So does DARPA. You want alternative fuels? You want stronger and lighter polymers? You want better paint? As far as I know, only third world countries don’t have public money dedicated to research. ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/10 "2009-01-30T04:32:31Z")
> [@gitfiddle](#): > > Google? Google. From [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Google): Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page, a Ph.D. student at Stanford.[1] 1. [About Google: Our products, technology and company information - About Google](http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/history.html) eta: oh shit, you said entirely government funded. i’ll have a couple more beers and slink off now , ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/11 "2009-01-30T04:44:49Z")
Quality control. During WWII, the government was concerned about equipment failing in the field, since that could have dire consequences for everyone involved. So they hired a guy by the name of W. Edward Demmings to figure something out. He came up with the elements of quality control as we know them today. One outgrowth of that research (besides better products) were customer surveys to asses not only how well a given product performed, but improvements to the products _and new products and technology customers would like to see!_ Climate research is entirely funded by the government, as are most studies into reducing damage from weather. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/12 "2009-01-30T05:34:01Z")
I’d like to say Xerox PARC, but maybe that only makes sense as a joke to me. It is a joke though. So far as I’m aware, PARC wasn’t government funded. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/13 "2009-01-30T05:43:18Z")
Hybrid cars are another area, now that I think about it. The government built a prototype hybrid car in the late 1970s, and the government is presently funding research into things like battery technology as well as alternative fuels. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/14 "2009-01-30T08:11:08Z")
How about AI, which has spun off a reasonable amount of useful stuff. I’m pretty sure the work at MIT wasn’t defense funded. I suspect it was NSF. Multics, on the other hand, got its start from ONR funding. Most of the basic work in electronic design automation came from a combination of funded university research and research in the big companies of the '70s and '80s, mostly IBM and Bell Labs. Most practical things are going to get picked up by industry before they are really working. It is often hard to draw boundaries. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/15 "2009-01-30T08:30:32Z")
The Genome projects seems to hold quite a bit of potential. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/16 "2009-01-30T13:19:52Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > How about AI, which has spun off a reasonable amount of useful stuff. I’m pretty sure the work at MIT wasn’t defense funded. I suspect it was NSF. Multics, on the other hand, got its start from ONR funding. AI’s a good one. Computer vision, especially, is useful for spotting flawed products on production lines. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/17 "2009-01-30T17:01:41Z")
[Linear programming](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dantzig#Linear_programming), which is more or less the basis for the airline industry. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/18 "2009-01-30T17:08:35Z")
The founders of Cisco developed their first router designs while working under DARPA funding at Stanford, then formed the company to make the things commercially. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/19 "2009-01-30T17:35:52Z")
Some of this is definitely true, but a few items mentioned here are dubious at best. In a lot oc cases, some government or another paiud for some research, but it never led anywhere or to anything useful, and other people wound up following completely different paths to making a useful product. In other cases, government may have started something but did it so badly that someone else took over and finished privately. ---
**Author:** ![HookerChemical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@HookerChemical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HookerChemical)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632/20 "2009-01-30T18:31:32Z")
Does the Hoover Dam count? If so, any number of hydroelectric dams which provide electric power. How about highways? Without our highways, commerce and industry would be crippled. The transcontinental railroad was funded by the government granting land to the railroads. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-funded-projects-and-research-that-has-been-a-boon-to-private-sector/483632.md?page=2)