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The collaborative relationship for university-industry research has evolved throughout many years, and has been defined, and challenged, by the different values of each institution. Commonly accepted practices have evolved, along with the establishment of structures in which university-industry collaboration can be carried out.
Collaborations between universities industry and cover a spectrum of arrangements that range from industry sponsorship of a single investigator research project at a university to a multi-year, interdisciplinary research project that involves many researchers from both universities industry and. Regardless of the relationship, each institution has expectations. The Government-Industry-University Research Roundtable and the Industrial Research Institute have summarized these expectations as follows:
From an industry point of view, research relationships with universities provide a window to new information, knowledge, or different approaches to increase fundamental understanding of technologies which may be of current or future interest to the company.Universities, for their part, look to these research relationships as ways to enhance the potential development and application of university-based knowledge and discoveries for the public benefit. (p. 1)
Two key areas continue to cause difficulty in negotiating terms of collaborative relationships between universities and industrial partners: intellectual property and publication rights. These areas of contention can be explained by the different values of each party. In the case of industry, it may be in the best interest of t a company to obtain ownership rights to an invention that was developed by a university. If the company exploits this invention by developing a new product and provides a benefit to the public, the values of each institution would be honored. If the company, however, were to shelve the technology so that no other company could develop a new product and gain a competitive advantage, then the values of each institution will be in direct conflict. In the case of publication, industry may ask a university for the right to approve any publication that comes out of collaborative research. Because disseminating knowledge is a core component of the university's mission, the university cannot accept these terms.
Major agreements between universities and industry that establish ground rules for a range of collaborations are on the rise. The master agreement of Amgen, Inc., with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and that of Caterpillar, Inc., with Carnegie Mellon University are examples. The university-industry collaboration between the University of Chicago and ARCH Development Corporation is an example of a collaboration that illustrates how the University of Chicago encourages the use of research results. This collaboration was featured in the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (1999).
Click here to learn more about ARCH.
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