Harnessing university research for competitiveness, industry support

The effects of changes in the industrial R&D climate on research performed at universities in both the East and West are examined. The approaches to using university research for industrial problems taken by SRC, a nonprofit industry consortium based in Research Triangle Park, NC, by the National Science Foundation, and by other university-industry collaborations are described. In Europe, Great Britain has taken the lead in making its institutions of higher education more market-driven by requiring them to compete for contracts from industry as well as from the public sector. Its universities (and their European counterparts) also have become more conscious of the value of their intellectual property. In Japan, where industrial researchers have dominated and academic R&D has not enjoyed much esteem, support continues for fields of basic research where the Japanese have established themselves, such as controlled nuclear fusion and high-energy physics. Universities also receive considerable funding from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, and sometimes additional funding is available at the prefectural level.<>