I see the point, but it has been a feature of both state and some
private funding that structures have often been put in place to ensure
that those providing the funds do not exert a direct influence on the
research that is funded. Of course, those mechanisms can never be
perfect, but the point is that attempts have been made to do this.

Given that hardly any research is independent, in the sense that few
people can afford to fund it out of their personal wealth (and that
raises different issues about what it means to be independent - if
John D Rockefeller had undertaken research on the effects of
anti-trust policy, would we consider it more "independent" than
research that he funded indirectly by providing a university with
money) perhaps the important issue is transparency about sources,
something that has become a significant problem with the proliferation
of funding directed to the support of specific causes.

Roger Backhouse