Eliezer Geisler

University—Industry Relations: A Review of Major Issues

The relationship and the collaboration processes between universities and industrial companies have been the subject of increased interest in the past decade. Several workshops have been conducted, some sponsored by Federal agencies [1, 2, 3], others by universities and commercial entities [4, 5, 6, 7]. The National Science Foundation conducted and funded major efforts in industry-university cooperative research [8, 9]; such programs include the recently established engineering research centers in several universities. In other such programs, the Industry-University Collaborative Research Centers (IUCRC) involve multicompany arrangements in which each company pays a participant annual fee [10, 11].

The Use of Indicators and Measures of the R & D Process in Evaluating Science and Technology Programmes

In the past decade there has been an increase in the demands imposed on R & D performing units and organizations, in both industry and government, to evaluate the contribution of R & D to longer-term organizational goals. Decisionmakers in the R & D units and in other parts of the organization are aware of the complexity of the R & D process and of the inadequacy of routine evaluation methods when transposed to the R & D innovation area.

The role of industrial Advisory Boards in technology transfer between universities and industry

This paper suggests that industrial Advisory Boards (IAB) have a significant, yet sometimes underestimated role in the transfer of technology between universities and industry, in the context of university-industry collaborative arrangements. Some barriers to technology transfer are described, and the role of the IABs in overcoming them is discussed, as a valuable forum for dynamic interaction between researchers, thus acting as a facilitator in the process of technology transfer.

Planning information systems strategy in the firm, based on business needs

Summary form only as given. Strategic planning for the firm has taken hold strongly in most large firms over the past decade or two. The financial targets in such plans can be readily phrased in terms directly related to sales volume, costs, profits and other metrics. However, when it comes to supporting functions, such as R&D, information systems and human resources, the metrics and targets become, of necessity, vague and general. The authors have worked on improving this situation in the research and development (R&D) field for many years with a wide range of companies and not-for-profit organisations engaged in R&D, and supporting R&D. More recently, they have developed methods of planning for other kinds of technology management applications-primarily in the field of information technology in the firm. The vehicle for this consulting effort has been a procedure developed by the senior strategy group (SSG) for strategic planning of the programs of information systems (IS) departments in a variety of industries and firms. This effort is aimed at the current lack of adequate planning of IS activities in direct relation to the business needs of the firm and using those relationships to derive credible and usable metrics to evaluate the performance and impacts of IS outputs on the firm. This paper describes several of their consulting engagements aimed at overcoming this situation in the information systems area and providing an effective means of developing and applying metrics to its outputs and impacts.