Academia-industry collaboration in Mexico: the case of the electronics industries

Summary form only given. A prevailing view in Mexican official circles is that academic R&D should contribute to the development of industry. Electronics engineering related R&D productivity, in terms of scientific publications, has increased over the last 10 years. In the same period, locally-based electronics industries almost disappeared as a consequence of globalization, while subcontracting, associated with foreign corporations, increased dramatically. Statistics show in this paper that the combined effect of these contrasting trends has been a widening of the interest gap between would-be partners. It is argued in this paper that by modifying publicly sponsored R&D evaluation criteria, researchers would be encouraged to cooperate with industry