Fourth-generation R&D

Academics do research because they love doing research, and because it´s what they have done, and so continue to do. They want to publish their results for professional approval, to market themselves and their teams, and to please their employers, the university. Companies have a simpler vision. They want to do research primarily to generate intellectual property and to transfer technology. Academia and industry tend to look at things differently. But there is nothing to be ashamed of in either motivation. What good is doing research if no-one hears about the results? What´s wrong with devoting oneself to making better products which can improve the quality of our lives? Both activities-academic and commercial-involve marketing: in one, researchers market ideas to get them accepted into the body of knowledge; in the other, intellectual property is marketed within an organisation (otherwise called “doing technology transfer”), followed by marketing products to consumers in the outside world