Can we consider an academic research lab a business?

At first glance, an academic research lab might not appear like a traditional business which is defined by three questions: Who are its clients? What does it do? And how is it delivering its product/service? How do these questions apply to a lab?

Who are the clients of a lab? The essential clients of a lab are funding agencies and employees, as they provide the critical components for a lab’s success and continuity.

Even though publications and presentations at conferences are an important outcome, they do not define the lab’s core business which is delivering research on an on-going basis by ensuring constant funding and recruitment of talented employees. Even a scientifically successful lab would need to shut its doors when lacking funding and people.

What does a lab deliver? Research is the primary external product; however, it is not the only product that matters to funding agencies and employees. It is unlikely that research alone would suffice for funding agencies and employees to invest resources, efforts, and time. Instead, a lab needs to deliver what individual funding agencies and employees – whether technicians, postdocs, PhD students, or other students – are seeking. For some of them, research might be sufficient. For others, criteria like public recognition and career opportunities that go beyond pure academic output, are important as well and might be more important than the research itself. Labs need to take these additional criteria into account when they want to ensure that funding agencies and employees are satisfied and remain invested.

How does a lab deliver this satisfaction? The “delivery strategy” should incorporate components that go beyond pure scientific output. Funding agencies and employees are interested in their own public recognition. Therefore, principal investigators should reflect how they showcase individual successes and collaborative achievements. It might be a missed opportunity to showcase one’s own accomplishments instead of highlighting the achievements of other lab members. Other components of this delivery strategy could include an open and constant communication with funding agencies that does not require reminders, and providing career opportunities, resources and funding for experiments, and mentoring to students.

As a conclusion, an academic research lab can be considered a business to which best business practices apply. It is worth reflecting about the own business model in a market which is short on funding and talented people.