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The Research Triangle Institute (RTI) is a non-profit research organization based in the Research Triangle Park (RTP) of North Carolina. RTI is the oldest tenant of this major research park. RTI has over 2,300 employees engaged in many distinct research areas. RTI describes its offerings as innovative research and development and ... services in health and pharmaceuticals, advanced technology, survey and statistics, education and training, economic and social development, and the environment.
RTI has regularly received many USA government contracts in reconstructing countries in governmental transition, generally helping to implement the privatising of public institutions, especially in Eastern Europe during the 1990s. In 2003 it was contracted by USAID to help in reconstructing Iraq, after the 2003 invasion. Specifically, USAID contracted RTI to privatise:
- water systems
- education system reform
in Iraq.
Concerns about RTI
While RTI's use of scientific research to help build positive social and economic institutions is in itself seen as positive by most people, there are some concerns about its independence and its internal structure.
Since RTI is deeply involved in social and economic institution building claimed to be intended for the good of the local community, some people see a conflict of interest in RTI's close links with corporations, whose primary aim is making profits and are operated on behalf of shareholders, not the public at large.
Moreover, RTI itself has a closed, hierarchical, corporate structure rather than an open, non-hierarchical structure such as that of the Linux community, the wikipedia community, Indymedia, or even the fairly open, moderately hierarchical structure of any typical fundamental science research community, where at least some level of democracy among senior scientists, known as collegiality, leads to a less vertical power structure than in private corporations.
Such issues lead some people to worry about lack of scientific freedom in the choice of research goals and methods, as well as the risk of lack of participation by local citizens in the choice of goals and methods and in the choice in how to apply the results of the research.
Rewriting Iraqi textbooks
RTI's contract for education system reform in Iraq, via Creative Associates International in Washington, D.C., caused controversy because RTI planned to rewrite Iraqi school textbooks.
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