Society's demands on the agricultural research system are evolving from preoccupation with the yield and cost of individual products to concern with safety, quality and variety on the one hand, and environmental implications of production processes on the other. The system's response to the demands will be profoundly affected by the revolutions in biotechnology, ecology and legal protection of agricultural research property rights. The scope of the public role, as exemplified in land grant universities, will be reduced in some areas, expanded in others. New incentives are created by opportunities to sell or license research products under patent protection. The managerial challenge for universities is to use these new incentives to improve overall research performance without compromising teaching, advising and other beneficial scholarly obligations with less direct financial rewards.