This paper examines the relationship between industry and university research, focusing on developments in the United States from the 1950s through the 1980s. It found that while industry spent less than 2 percent of its research funds on academic research in 1965, it spent almost 5 percent on academic research in 1989. It also found that in the first half of the 1980s, industry substantially increased its investment in research, and that rise largely accounted for the rise in industry support for university research. In the second half of the decade, growth in industry research was modest in absolute terms, flat to negative in real terms, even though spending on university research continued to increase markedly. The paper maintains that university involvement in commercial relationships with industry have proliferated during the 1980s, especially in such areas as research parks and patent development, and that such relationships often come into conflict with university missions and goals. (MDM)