Enterprise Research Collaboration

5. Enterprise Research Collaboration

132. Enterprise research collaboration is a possibility for public HEIs to gain additional income. Private partners can financially support research projects, build research centers, or pay for specific consultancy services. However, especially in in lower- and middle-income countries, universities currently contribute only to a limited extent to technology adaptation and upgrading in companies. A study by the World Bank (2012) demonstrates the disconnect between public and private research. Table 20 shows a snapshot of university – industry links in East Asia and other countries, including Bangladesh, and demonstrates clearly that many lower- and middle-income countries are behind.

Table 19: World Bank 2012: University –Industry Links

133. The World Bank study identifies three main groups of reasons for disconnect: capacity, information, and incentives. Capacity relates to the capacity of universities to undertake meaningful research and the capacity of firms not only to identify but also to use the knowledge available at universities. The second category, information failures, can be multiple and are related to firms’ lack of knowledge of existing technologies generally and university offerings particularly. Third, without adequate incentives, universities and faculty may not be interested or even able to relate to enterprises. Similarly, on the private side, lack of incentives to innovate will also lead to a lack of links.

134. This disconnect must be solved with efficient public policies. Examples of such policies could be for performance-based funding (addressing capacity and incentive constraints) or the right mix of institutional autonomy and accountability (addressing information and incentive gaps). The best practice example from the US shows that government policies that create incentives are essential for encouraging university –industry

partnerships.

Box 16: University –Industry Collaboration in the United States

University –industry research collaboration, especially partnerships between the agriculture and the manufacturing sectors and universities, has a long history in the United States (US). Early research collaboration often grew out of the local orientation of a university's educational mission of providing graduates with the skills needed by local economies. The development of electrical engineering, chemical engineering, and aeronautical engineering in the late 19th and early 20th century was centered on universities.

A number of policy measures designed to increase incentives for research and development (R&D) and to increase cooperation both within industry and between industry and universities include (i) R&D tax credit with a specific provision for basic research conducted in industry (currently 20% of the payments made to a university or research organization by a firm, which substantially reduces R&D costs); (ii) relaxation of the antitrust rules for R&D joint ventures (1984), and the Bayh-Dole Act (1980), which allowed universities to retain the intellectual property rights on research results obtained using federal funds; and (iii) emergence of revolutionary advances in university-based life sciences research. The major motivations for the industry participants in university –industry linkages (UILs) are (i) access to new research, (ii) development of new products, (iii) maintaining a relationship with the university, (iv) obtaining new patents, and (v) solving technical problems (Mian. 1996. The university business incubator: A strategy for developing

new research/technology-based firms. The Journal of High Technology Management Research. 7. pp. 191 –208.). One notable reason for collaborating with a university is the perception that collaborating (as evidenced by joint publishing) with “star” university scientists is very important for firm performance in the biotechnology area. The reasons for participation by universities include acquiring practical knowledge useful for teaching, student internships and job placement, and obtaining patentable inventions and business opportunities. Also, university administrators increasingly pressure faculty to engage in applied commercial research. The traditional modes of UILs are (i) start-up companies based on university research, (ii) university-industry-