The Promise and Perils of NGO-Supported Science

Until recently, philosophers of science have largely focused their attention on academic and industry-funded research, overlooking the contributions of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to science. Nevertheless, NGO-supported science is highly significant both from a practical perspective (serving as a source of impactful research that can address the needs of local communities) and a theoretical perspective (serving as a unique institutional context for scientific research that contrasts with more well-studied institutional contexts). To facilitate further studies of NGO-supported science, this paper provides an overview of what is currently known about its major strengths and weaknesses, as well as potential strategies for addressing those weaknesses. On the basis of this analysis, the paper shows that studying NGO-supported science can generate important insights about the institutional structure of science, approaches for managing values in science, strategies for generating impactful research, and instances of “false advertising” in science that need to be carefully addressed.