University-Industry Research Collaboration

Research and development efforts made by government, private industry and universities have transformed the United States into a major power in the world in science and technology. But our commitment in R&D has slipped in the past few years. There are growing problems in the composition of the science-engineering work force as well as our productivity. Possible long-term consequences of this worsening situation are predictable. Since government reduction in research spending plus inflation are eroding potential education and research funds, University-Industry collaboration becomes a necessity for maintaining the research activities and to reverse the worsening trend. The necessity of collaboration is well recognized by industries as well as by academia. However, the implementation of university-industry collaboration is non-trivial. What universities want is research funding with freedom to spend it. What industries want is research results which can directly apply to the innovation of new and improved products and technology, plus a continuous flux of graduating young blood to inject into industries. In this talk, I will re-emphasize the crisis in our R&D with cold statistics. I will stress the need of university-industry collaboration and summarize and comment on some of the sugestions made to universities as well as to industries as examples in this type of collaboration.