at this is that ideas go both ways, and a top-notch federal employee could get that one little idea that he /she has been looking for , by some loose lipped private employee, at lunch when the "tight-lipped" conduct of the "consultant meeting" is over.
Of course, industry pays well for it's consulatations, and it is a conflict of interest between the two parties, if the federally paid for data is just given freely to industry, who could eventually build lucrative patents with, as a result of such collaborations.
All I selfishly care about, in my advanced PD state, is "can SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE, create a procedure that will allow ME to spend the rest of my life outside the reach of the PD "monster". Do I care (at this stage ) about somebody getting wealthy through conflict of interest. No, as long as it's all about PD ! cs