Making research partnerships work

Summary form only given. The External Research Program (ERP) is a worldwide laboratory in which outstanding university faculty, research staff, students, and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) engineers work on problems of strategic importance to both DEC and the investigators. The program serves as a lens to focus information transfer from universities to all DEC groups needing resources available at universities, colleges, and affiliated organizations. The primary benefits of ERP come through interactions with outstanding university researchers and projects. Through more than 200 active ERP projects, DEC employees learn new approaches and become better able to challenge, enhance, expand, and support the missions of their own organizations. Technology transfer is built into the foundation of all these relationships, not just added on later. Often, a better product or internal process is the direct result