The Cooperative University Research Laboratory

Abstract

As the recent number of scholarly papers, articles in the popular press, and practitioner workshops attest, there is continuing interest in encouraging cooperation between universities and industry [12]. In particular, there is a persistent faith that bringing the tools and techniques of university research to bear on the challenge of developing new technology will stimulate the growth of technologybased industries for the good of the economy and academia. Such cooperation, however, constitutes a relatively new role for academe, industry, and government. It requires all parties to act in ways outside their institutional norms; a process which, by definition, involves risks and challenges. Cross-sector collaboration is not something that comes naturally to either universities or industries. Nonetheless, a large number of joint venture R&D efforts among universities has been identified [1, 8, 10]. Parties to joint ventures must assume that their participation will be rewarded. Industrial concerns enter into university partnerships in order to take advantage of the knowledge base of the faculty and to assist in the development of specialized graduate students. Universities, on the other hand, are confronted with the realities of modern research. No longer can the single scientist in a laboratory of boiling beakers follow a viable research agenda. Scientific and engineering research has become an organizational enterprise typically requiring teams of researchers and batteries of high-technology, highpriced laboratory equipment. Moreover, extant laboratory equipment