Research – blue sky and applied – is fundamental to the mission of research-intensive universities. As such, it is enunciated in the Mission Statements of such institutions. The University of Barcelona for example, a research-intensive university in the Catalan region, states that ‘The University of Barcelona is a public institution committed to the environment, whose mission is to provide a quality public service of higher education primarily through the study, teaching, research and effective management of knowledge transfer.’1 This is its Mission. Research also features prominently in its Vision, ‘Barcelona University must be a university that offers comprehensive training, ongoing and critical evaluation at the highest level, and research which is both advanced and efficient...