- publicize and document, on a worldwide basis, success stories, lessons learned, and benchmarks established at conferences, in journals, and elsewhere, to provide guidance to others inclined to experiment with partnerships;
- participate in outreach activities designed to educate elected representatives, as well as the public at large, about the importance of such collaborations to the competitiveness of American business and to economic development within participating states in order to improve the general climate for collaboration.
Finally, national organizations such as the IRI, the Research Roundtable, and the COC, can undertake activities designed to encourage greater collaboration among universities and private companies, and to enhance understanding by representatives of both sectors of their common interests. One example of such activity might entail follow-up workshops to address unresolved issues, including issues of intellectual property.
Concluding Discussion
At present, many disparate forces have coalesced to affect change in the U.S. R&D enterprise. Among the most salient influences on the system are:
- the unprecedented mobility of capital, technology, and human resources, which together have helped other nations develop their own R&D capabilities;
- the rapid ascent of the computer, and information and communication technology, which have spawned entirely new industries;
- the emergence of civilian and commercial interests as primary drivers of leading-edge technology, which now supplement the creative force of the defense sector;
- the accelerated pace and increasing complexity of science and technology, which have given rise to new disciplines and transformed the innovation process itself; and
- the mission to balance the federal budget.
Together, these forces have overtaken the post-1945 system of innovation that developed and sustained U.S. technological preeminence. In the course of this transformation, the roles of universities, industry, and government in the R&D enterprise are changing. A new paradigm of R&D partnerships is emerging, based on the collaboration, rather than the independence, of these key performers.
The emerging trend toward partnerships for research is the central finding of a report recently released by the COC entitled "Endless Frontier, Limited Resources" (Council on Competitiveness, 1996). That report shows that instead of separate islands doing R&D, partnerships will be the way of the
future. While the perspectives and approaches of partners will remain unique, the integrated selection and exploration of key topics and the collective use of complementary strengths will be of vital importance in meeting the challenges of continuing competitiveness that face this nation.
The COC defines partnerships broadly as cooperative arrangements that engage companies, universities, and government agencies and laboratories in varying combination to pool resources in pursuit of shared research objectives. The common thread running throughout all partnerships is the joint commitment of participants to share costs, resources, and experiences in order to draw strength from each other by leveraging capabilities.
The present report on the Duke workshop adds to our knowledge of what successful industry-university partnerships, in their extreme diversity, have in common, and it serves as a template for formulating individual partnerships and a collaborative R&D enterprise. As we go forward, those who will shape the future of R&D must recognize the importance of experiments in partnering, communicating their experiences of failure as well as of success.