Main Sections

Objectives

Definitions of Collaborative Researach

Background of and Trends in Collaborative Research

Benefits of Research Collaboration

Challenges to Collaboration

Implementation Requirements

Steps Toward Collaborative Research

Conflict of Interest

University-Industry Collaborations

University-Schools Partnerships

University-Community-Based Collaborations

University-Humanities Research

End Notes and Completion Items


Download Entire Module - 591K
Background of and Trends in Collaborative Research

The Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (1999) and its sponsoring organizations, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine, identified trends in Collaborative Research that help to understand the rationale for current policies and procedures.

  • Research collaboration has a long history in the United States. Unlike the university systems of other countries, the American system is decentralized. A primary mission of U.S. universities from their earliest days has been to provide graduates with the skills needed by local economies. Early research collaboration often grew out of the local orientation of a university's educational mission.
  • The development of electrical engineering, chemical engineering, and aeronautical engineering in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was centered at universities. Many of the modes of interaction that are familiar today originated before World War II (e.g., start-up companies based on university research, university-industry-government research centers, faculty consulting, and licensing of university-generated inventions).

  • The post-World War II period witnessed broad and rapid growth in U.S. research and development and the expansion of the university role in research.
  • During the 25 years, university collaborative research has grown considerably. One impetus was the Patent and Trademark Laws Amendments of 1980 (PL 96-517) and later revisions, referred to as the Bayh-Dole Act, which brought order to and simplified federal policy on patenting and licensing by non-profit institutions of the results of publicly funded research. Bayh-Dole granted control to universities of most proprietary rights deriving from federally sponsored research. A second factor was the emergence of revolutionary advances in university-based life sciences research. Today, industry funds about 7% of university research, about double that of 20 years ago, and various indicators of university-industry interactions show continuing rapid growth (Macrina, 1995).
  • As the funding criteria change for such programs as the National Science Foundation's Science and Technology Centers and State/Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (see Appendix), more multi-university research is possible (Murphy et al., 2004). Master agreements between universities and large companies that establish the ground rules for a range of specific interactions are also on the rise (Murphy et al., 2004).