Beyond Bayh-Dole: Mixed-Funded Research and the Governance of University Commercialization in the United States and the European Union

Abstract

University research commercialization is no longer well described by the conventional model of patenting and licensing alone. Research outputs now move through a broader set of pathways, including data, software, implicit know-how, collaborative platforms, and long-term research relationships, many of which are structured as much by contract as by formal ownership. This paper compares the United States and the European Union as two influential but distinct approaches to governing research commercialization process. The paper argues that the U.S. model remains largely anchored in an ownership-centered framework associated with Bayh-Dole, while the EU increasingly frames commercialization through the broader concepts of knowledge valorization and intellectual asset management. Using mixed-funded research as the main comparative test case, the paper examines how each system addresses ownership, licensing, publication, confidentiality, data access, and public return when public funding and private collaboration overlap. It finds that the U.S. approach offers greater legal clarity and institutional routinization, whereas the EU approach better captures the diversity of modern research outputs and the broader public-value aims of commercialization. At the same time, hybrid research arrangements reveal a common weakness in both systems: many of the most significant decisions now concern publication rights, sponsor influence, data access, and downstream use, and these are often shaped more by contractual design than by ownership rules alone. The paper concludes that a more effective framework would pair clearer baseline rules with stronger attention to contractual governance, dissemination safeguards, and the public purposes of university research.