Excerpt

The aim of the workshop was to discuss the circumstances under which research and development (R&D) teams and partnerships in the chemical sector are appropriate and successful. Issues put forward for discussion included examination of the goals of R&D teams and partnerships, the barriers to implementing them, their potential benefits, and the available methodologies for carrying them out. What are the key trends, how are collaborations changing as a result, and how are best practices evolving? The workshop, “Research Teams and Partnerships: Trends in the Chemical Sciences,” brought together research scientists, managers, and technology transfer specialists from government, industry, and academia to discuss and explore the trends and potential impacts of partnerships and teams for the conduct of research in the chemical sciences.

Contents

• The National Academies
• Chemical Sciences Roundtable
• Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology
• Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications
• Preface
• Acknowledgment of Reviewers
• Summary
  • Overview
  • Historical Context
  • Teams and Partnerships in the University Setting
  • Partnerships within Federal Laboratories
  • R&D Alliances and Consortia in Industrial Settings
• 1. The Evolving Structure of University-Industry Collaboration in the United States: Three Cases
  • Introduction
  • Old-Style Collaboration
  • The Research Corporation
  • Bayh-Dole
  • Conclusions
  • Discussion
• 2. Partnerships in Research: The Evolution of Expectations
  • Introduction
  • The Pre-World War II Era
  • The Postwar Era
  • The Post-Oil-Embargo Era of Experimentation
  • The Competitiveness Challenge
  • The Era of Industrial Restructuring
  • Closing Observations
  • Discussion
• 3. University-Industry Strategic Alliance: A British Perspective
  • Introduction
  • A New Climate
  • Government Initiatives
  • Infrastructure for Research and Industry
  • Strategic Alliance
  • An Example of an Alliance
  • Academic Freedom?
  • Conclusions
  • Discussion
• Panel Discussion
• 4. Research Teams at Universities: The Center for Interfacial Engineering
  • Organization and Operation
  • University-Industry Partnership
  • Maintaining the Industrial-University Partnership after Engineering Research Center Funding
  • Discussion
• 5. Building Industry-University Research Partnerships: Corporate Perspective
  • Industry-University Relationships
  • Survey from the Council of Chemical Research
  • What Each Partner Brings to the Table
  • Intellectual Property
  • Discussion
• 6. Diluting Public Patrimony or Inventive Response to Increasing Knowledge Asymmetries: Watershed for Land Grant Universities? Reflections on the University of California, Berkeley-Novartis Agreement
  • Introduction
  • Background
  • Partnering
  • Attachment: Responses to the CNR-Novartis Arrangement: An Explosion of Faculty Concern
  • Discussion
• 7. What Industry Seeks from Federal Laboratories, and Examples of Collaborations
  • The Changing Nature of Business
  • Overview of Dow
  • External Technology Partnerships
  • Federal Laboratory Interactions
  • Multiphase Fluid Dynamics Consortium
  • Selecting Partners
  • What We Have Learned
  • Future Opportunities
  • Conclusions
  • Discussion
• 8. Partnering at the National Laboratories: Catalysis as a Case Study
  • The National Laboratories
  • Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Discussion
• Panel Discussion
• 9. Government-Industry Joint R&D Ventures: Bridging the Gap Between the Laboratory and the Marketplace
  • The Need for Partnerships
  • Bridging the Gap
  • Discussion
• 10. Factors Contributing to the Success of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles
  • Background: Program Description
  • Elements of the Program Critical to its Success
  • Discussion
• Appendixes
  • A List of Workshop Participants
  • B Biographical Sketches of Workshop Speakers
  • C Origin of and Information on the Chemical Sciences Roundtable

Support for this project was provided by National Science Foundation under Grant No. CHE-9630106, the National Institutes of Health under Contract No. N01-OD-4-2139, and the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG02-95ER14556.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, or the U.S. Department of Energy.

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the workshop organizing committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.