GoKawiilDrones are one example of a technology that emerged out of dual-use research.Credit: Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty
Dual-use research that leads to applications for both civilian and military or security purposes is geographically widespread and more scientifically influential than is research that has strictly civilian applications.
An analysis of data from bibliometric databases and US patent records found that 14% of 600,000 scientific papers published between 1981 and 2005 originated from dual-use research projects (see ‘Dual-use research is cited more frequently’). The study also found that dual-use research publications are cited more than their non-dual-use research counterparts. The findings were published in Science on 4 June1.
“Until now, many of the discussions and relevant studies related to the dual-use research have been largely based on the anecdotal evidence for historical cases,” says study author Seokbeom Kwon, who studies science policy at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, South Korea.
The new analysis “is the first large scale empirical baseline to illustrate dual-use research and provides a systematic way of identifying [it] at scale,” he adds.
“There is a shared understanding in the community, particularly those working at the cutting edge of technology, that dual use is extremely widespread. And this is confirmed by the data that we see here,” says Mattias Björnmalm, secretary-general of CESAER, an association of science and technology universities, who is based in Brussels.
Source: Ref. 1
What is dual-use research?
In the analysis, Kwon identified papers that had been cited by at least two patents, which had been submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) up until 2020. He considered a paper to be dual-use research if the USPTO flagged one of the two patents that cite the paper for a security review by US federal authorities. Around 0.2% of the total papers were cited by two patents that underwent such review.
The papers cited by patents that did not require a security-sensitive review according to USPTO records were considered non-dual-use research.
... continue reading