Industry-government Partnership Research Articles

Novel industry-government governance mechanisms for the eradication of bovine viral diarrhoea in the UK and Ireland

Industry led schemes to eradicate the endemic cattle disease bovine viral diarrhoea involving government legislation represent a new type of biosecurity governance. This paper explores the governance of schemes to eradicate bovine viral diarrhoea in the UK and Ireland, using the concept of the institutional void. The institutional void describes the devolution of responsibility from central government to devolved administrations and industry. In addition, our research took place within the context of uncertainty over Brexit and how this will affect biosecurity governance within the UK, and the UK's relationship with EU countries, particularly Ireland. The paper draws on interviews with key stakeholders involved in the design and administration of the schemes across the UK and Ireland. The paper identifies three institutional logics that motivated the development of the schemes and their design to ensure successful disease eradication. The key findings from the paper were that though the schemes had a novel industry led design, novel governance mechanisms for ensuring compliance other than national government enforcement do not yet exist. The most common response to threats to the schemes' logic was to call for a scaling up of responsibility – from industry to government and from government to the EU. This may allow for the harmonisation of schemes and enforcement of compliance but may also open up fresh legitimacy challenges as control of the scheme is also scaled up from industry to government and government to the EU. While past research has shown that international biosecurity regulation can become depoliticised by the actors involved and is treated as a risk calculation exercise, this was not the case with BVD eradication schemes where the meaning of ‘BVD free’ was a politicised concept. The schemes represented a new departure in biosecurity governance and so raise the need to rethink what compliance means in an industry-government hybrid scheme – is it compliance with epidemiological advice or compliance with the law and how can these two meanings be best harmonised? • Schemes eradicating BVD in UK and Ireland are novel forms of biosecurity governance. • Schemes are industry led and involve industry-government partnerships. • Despite novel partnerships government seen as having responsibility for compliance. • Disagreements about role of government and whether BVD is public or industry good. • Harmonising schemes between countries was about scaling up responsibility to the EU.

Biosecurity partnership and collaboration: key similarities and differences between the Australia and New Zealand plant-biosecurity government-industry agreements

New Zealand and Australia have each established legal partnerships between government and industry to improve biosecurity outcomes. Both partnerships take a collaborative approach to build capability and capacity to manage biosecurity risk across the biosecurity system. Key differences between the New Zealand and Australian systems include: the scope of responsibilities and accountability for management of biosecurity pests; governance arrangements; and cost sharing. Key similarities include: a shared role in response decision making; shared costs for pest eradication; advanced agreement on the potential liabilities surrounding pest eradication; provision for compensation to growers for direct costs incurred during an eradication response; minimum commitments to maintain capability and capacity; and an established basis for a transparent, consistent and equitable partnership. The approach taken by both countries encompasses the view that biosecurity outcomes will be improved by building genuine industry—government partnerships. In New Zealand, successes include development of operational agreements, strategies for fruit fly and brown marmorated stink bug, and completion of readiness activities for future incursions of these pests.

Growing careers

Growing careers

Best Practices for Operating Government-Industry Partnerships in Cyber Security

Since the publication of the first National Strategy to Secure Cyber Space in 2003 the US federal government has realized that due to the interconnected nature of the Internet, securing the system would require an industry-government partnership. However, defining exactly what that new partnership would look like and how it would operate has been unclear. The ramifications of this ambiguous strategy have been noted elsewhere including the 2011 JSS article “A Relationship on the Brink” which described the dysfunctional state of public private partnerships with respect to cyber security. Subsequently, a joint industry-government study of partnership programs has generated a consensus list of “best practices” for operating such programs successfully. Moreover, subsequent use of these principles seems to confirm their ability to enhance the partnership and hopefully helps ameliorate, to some degree, the growing cyber threat. This article provides a brief history of the evolution of public-private partnerships in cyber security, the joint study to assess them and the 12 best practices generated by that analysis.

National Human Resource Development in practice: an interview with M.V. Subbiah

Theory and research in National Human Resource Development (NHRD) to date has relied extensively on literature reviews or on the analysis of secondary sources of data. To address this perceived gap, I elected to interview an NHRD practitioner to advance the scholarly conversation using the case example of India. This article is an interview with the chairperson of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), India. The NSDC is the first private–public–government partnership or coalition, organized to support workforce education and development issues. Given the urgent demand for a skilled workforce, the Government of India has targeted skill development of 500 million people in the next decade (NSDC website). In terms of the state of the art in NHRD practice, the goals of the organization (NSDC) and the perspectives shared by the chairperson offer valuable insights in the implementation of one of the many evolving NHRD strategies in India. Interestingly, the chairperson of the NSDC, in a previous life, was the head of the Murugappa Group, one of the biggest industrial groups of companies in India. Thus, this interview offers unique perspectives of a successful chief executive officer turned NHRD practitioner on the challenges and opportunities facing India. Further, the interview highlights the contribution of NSDC and similar industry–government partnerships and suggests potential implications for other developing countries.

University, Industry, and Government Partnership: Its Present and Future Challenges in Indonesia

This paper presents the current situation of the university–industry–government partnership in Indonesia, in the context of university readiness to contribute to the government strategy as outlined in the MP3EI (Master plan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia Economic Development) 2011-2025. Since the higher education system is highly diversified in term of its capacity to contribute, the paper reviews the status in 3 different types of institutions: research, production, and human resources development oriented. Initial finding shows that the government allocated very small budget for research (0.08% of GDP) and universities play a critical role in the national research capacity. Although research is still considered as very low in the government priority setting, the number of patents and international publications has significantly increased in the last few years. Collaborative activities have been carried out to date include, service and training, patenting, collaborative R&D, networking events, industrial collaboration for education, incubators, SME support, and science parks. University and industry appear to be still in the state of “institutional sphere” instead of “consensus space” lacking understanding about each other. The uncertainty about institutional framework available for universities drives academics to develop partnership with industries individually instead of institutionally. Universities feel that there are only few domestic companies with interest and/or capacity to innovate, with the bulk of industry concentrated in assembly operations. Implementation of MP3EI outside Jawa might require expertise and capacity that are only available in institutions in Jawa, that it is essential to develop mechanisms for building local institutional capacity. We conclude that all 3 institutional spheres require further development before each can take purposeful action. Having said that, the study team found a number of cases whereby the 3 parties are willing, even eager, to develop partnerships. With an appropriate and comprehensive strategy, there is significant potential to create productive environment to be developed into knowledge, consensus, and innovation space.

A Relationship on the Rocks: Industry-Government Partnership for Cyber Defense

Cyber security is a complex issue that requires a smart, balanced approach to public-private partnership. However, there is not a simple gold standard or mandatory minimum standard of cyber security, which can cause friction in the relationship between government and private industry. There are fundamental differences in these two unevenly yoked partners: government's fundamental role under the U.S. Constitution is to provide for the common defense; industry's role, backed by nearly a hundred years of case law, is to maximize shareholder value. Further differences are that government partners and industry players often assess risk differently, based on their differing missions and objectives. To be successful, both government and industry need to remain committed to the relationship and continue working on it by understanding the complexity of the situation, adapting where appropriate to their partner's perspective. For the public-private partnership to endure and grow, an appreciation of these differing perspectives—born from different legally mandated responsibilities—must be reached. Ultimately, the government should compensate private entities for making investments that align with the government's perspective, such as the social contract, rather than mandating that the shareholders subsidize the government function of providing for the common defense. This article is available in Journal of Strategic Security: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol4/iss2/7 Journal of Strategic Security Volume IV Issue 2 2011, pp. 97-112 DOI: 10.5038/1944-0472.4.2.6 Journal of Strategic Security (c) 2011 ISSN: 1944-0464 eISSN: 1944-0472 97 A Relationship on the Rocks: Industry-Government Partnership for Cyber Defense Larry Clinton Internet Security Alliance Washington, D.C., USA lclinton@isalliance.org

Sustainable development policies in Canada's mining sector: an overview of government and industry efforts

This paper provides an overview of mining sustainable development policy-making in Canada. In addition to documenting the important efforts made by the Canadian government, some of the more recent initiatives undertaken by the Canadian mining industry are highlighted. Following years of sustainable development research and careful planning, the Canadian government finally drafted the national Minerals and Metals Policy of the Government of Canada: Partnerships for Sustainable Development (1996), which sets out the Canadian government's role, objectives, and strategies in areas of jurisdiction for making the concept of sustainable development operational in its mining industry, and seeks to create a legacy that Canadians can pass to future generations. Since its implementation, the primary response of both national mining organizations and selected Canadian mining companies to the challenge of sustainable development has been improved planning, and the development of policies that address key environmental and socioeconomic issues and which build upon the principles addressed in the Minerals and Metals Policy of the Government of Canada . It is concluded that most of the attempts made thus far by both the government and the mining industry to address mining sustainable development through policy-making have been major successes, but further improvements can be achieved if additional industry-government partnerships are formed, more community workshops are held, and selected environmental management practices are researched and developed.

University—Industry—Government Partnerships for Innovation

The Clinton Administration's Technology Reinvestment Project (TRP) 1994–97 introduced new partnering paradigms to foster dual-use (commercial and military) research and development of new technologies, new commercially viable products and new manufacturing processes (including spin-off and spin-on applications). The TRP at Northeastern University enabled the formation of the Consortium for Electromagnetics Research Applications (CEMRA) which seeded eight partnerships. Each partnership involved one or more university researchers with one or more industrial counterparts, as ‘fellows’ or ‘partners’. Each partnership is a variation on the dual-use theme. The CEMRA partnerships are best-practice models for industry–university collaboration. CEMRA is an interesting application of the Triple Helix innovation model. The partnerships constitute dynamic infrastructures with interactive feedback loops between university and industry researchers and managers. The Triple Helix model is also exemplified in a more general sense by the Technology Reinvestment Project as a whole.

A technology roadmap for the U.S. aluminum industry

By partnering with the OIT, the aluminum industry has taken an important step in planning the technology needs of their industry for the next 20 years. Under the leadership of the Aluminum Association, the industry has become proactive in defining its long-term goals and the technology requirements to meet them. Over the next year, the development of a more detailed aluminum-research agenda will help to realign research in companies, universities, and national laboratories. To ensure that the roadmap responds to customer requirements, the aluminum industry is working to improve its understanding of the technology and research needs of each of its end-use customers. Although the ultimate success of this endeavor may not be known for several years, the aluminum industry-government partnership can serve as an effective model for collaboration efforts in other U.S. industries.

Innovative University—Industry—Government Collaboration

University–industry–government partnerships have become extremely significant and important technology transfer instruments in the USA. These partnerships have also created challenges and opportunities that necessitate a new ‘culture’ or ‘mindset’ for the collaborating partners. The early identification and awareness of barriers that may jeopardize an effective collaboration has presented itself as one of the major challenges. The paper begins with a discussion of major technology transfer issues and views collaboration from the perspective of industry, government and universities. Questions such as ‘What are the primary concerns facing all partners?’ and ‘What can be done to effect change in the mindset of partners?’ are addressed in the light of case studies. The paper also describes six innovative university–industry–government collaboration models initiated in the USA that include both domestic and international ventures under implementation.

R&D cuts said to threaten U.S. security

White House officials argued last week that the deep cuts in research and development funding proposed by Congress in its effort to balance the budget will have a devastating effect on future national security. By proposing to slash the long-term science and technology investments we need, while increasing funding for big weapons systems, appropriations bills really do threaten to pull the legs out from under our future security, said President Clinton's science adviser, John H. Gibbons, at a White House briefing last week. Gibbons and others pointed to the elimination or near elimination of the Defense Department's Technology Reinvestment Project, which seeks to harness leading-edge commercial technology for national defense, and the Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program, which sustains industry-government partnerships, as especially egregious cuts. Other congressional cuts that are drawing Administration fire on national security grounds include cuts in climate-change resea...

Health care giving way to other issues

Environmental legislation has come to the forefront as the 103rd Congress winds down. Bills once thought to have little change of passage--such as those dealing with Superfund reauthorization and overhaul of pesticide and food safety regulations--have gotten a new lease on life recently, as has legislation aimed at promoting the development of green technologies.'' Late last month, the House passed H.R. 3870, which, according to Rep. George E Brown Jr. (D.-Calif.), chairman of the Committee on Science Space Technology, which developed the bill, emphasizes a new approach to addressing two highly important national goals: maintaining a healthy environment and fostering a growing economy. The goal is to improve processes and use of materials before they become a pollution concern. The bill would provide 80% million in fiscal 1995 and $120 million in fiscal 1996 for joint industry-government partnerships to develop technologies that meet that goal. The bill would also authorize use of federal facilities for testing environmental technologies. The senate passed its version of the bill in May.

New patterns of industry-government partnership

The character of our American society has changed slowly over the past 50 to 100 years, but peoples' aspirations, both in the United States and abroad, have changed abruptly in just the last 5 to 10 years and are still constantly changing. We haven't seen anything yet; mankind's aspirations are going to soar to new heights. Furthermore, technology provides the power with which society can meet these new, higher aspirations, if we but put our minds to it. Whether we can, in 5 years, or 50, or 100, attain such social goals as eliminating poverty, disease, and ignorance from the United States and spreading literacy, freedom, and governmental stability throughout the now less-developed areas of the world rests chiefly on social decisions. These social decisions must be made soon. To make them intelligently- in fact, to make any decisions at all-will require new patterns of industry-government partnership.