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•At the regional level, some regions establish learning and skills councils that actively engage with the problem of increasing the number and strength of linkages between education and industry.

•Universities may be encouraged to adapt management and education structures to sustain links with the business sector. Examples of these include increased mobility between academia and business; project management support; support in the management of intellectual property; cooperation in developing educational modules, etc.

•More generally, the role of universities is now changing as there is an increasing expectation on them not only to contribute to developing and passing on new knowledge but also to take an active role in developing their communities and local business.

•Management structures in universities to support these programmes may include units such as technology transfer services, specific legal services in negotiating contacts and in protecting intellectual property; research and business services; liaison officers assisting relations with businesses, etc.

•Other outreach programmes that are aimed at strengthening the links between education and industry include establishing innovation clubs and bodies offering research advice services. These programmes target establishing direct links among potential stakeholders from both the academic and business communities.

A. Identifying industry-science linkages and the forms of public support

The role of industry-science linkages

Linkages between knowledge production and knowledge utilisation are at the heart of any innovation system. The efficiency and success of such linkages depend on the willingness of both sides of the process to collaborate. The need to work together has long been recognized by forward thinking businesses and universities. However, it is only relatively recently that industry-science linkages have become an explicit target of public policy (Box C3.1.), which traditionally used to focus on the “linear” models of innovation. With the latter becoming increasingly obsolete in the modern knowledge-based economy, policy has started to devote more attention to the systemic nature of innovation.

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Box C3.1. Public programmes supporting industry-science linkages

United States17

The SBIR is a public-private partnership that provides grants to fund private R&D projects in small businesses. The Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982 created the foundations for these long-standing programmes. One of the objectives is increasing private sector commercialization of innovation derived from Federal R&D. There are two types of awards:

Phase I – assist businesses to assess feasibility of an idea’s scientific and commercial potential. Phase II - assist the business to develop further its research, ideally leading to a commercially

viable product, process, or service.

The National Academy of Sciences conducted a congressionally mandated evaluation study of the programme on the basis of large sample of data for the period 1992-2001. One of the conclusions of the study was that success in commercialization is associated with the involvement of a university or public research organization in the project.

Denmark

The Innovation Consortium Programme was initiated in 2002, being a continuation of the Centre Contract Programme set up in 1995. Through these arrangements, the Government has been providing support for project cooperation in consortia involving enterprises, research institutions and technological service parties with a view to developing knowledge and competences (technology platforms) that can form the basis for product and service development by Danish businesses within a time frame of five to ten years. A 10-year evaluation of these programmes found out that most of the consortia resulted in an acceleration of the innovation process or were a prerequisite for producing the technologies. Case studies suggested that new innovations and knowledge dissemination took place several years after consortia have ended. However, the involvement of SMEs has been less satisfactory.

Spain: Institutional basis for industry-science collaboration

The University-Company Foundations are private entities with a regional scope that are formed as joint initiatives by universities and companies. They provide support for university-industry relations in three main areas: innovation and technology transfers, specialised training for universities and companies and, especially, mobility of students and graduates between companies and universities within Europe.

Linkages as amplifiers of the effect of public policy

It has been identified that efficiency of public policy in support of innovation increases significantly it if supports both the supply of and demand for innovation. Moreover, in this context, efficient industry-science linkages can act as amplifiers of the effect of public policy measures.

•On the supply side, the level of support (e.g. in the form of government intervention with grants or tax relief), varies from a relatively high level for basic R&D through to

17 Source: Presentation by Al Link (United States) to the second session of the UNECE Team of Specialists on Innovation and Competitiveness Policies; Inside Consulting and Oxford Research (2005), Evaluation of the Centre Contract/Innovation Consortium Programme.

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none at the point where a product meets the market at which point all of the risk is carried by the investor. Between these two points there is a sliding scale of diminishing government intervention and increasing investor risk as ideas are moved from basic research, through applied R&D, demonstrators, commercialization, market development and diffusion into the market.

•On the demand side of the process there is also recognition of the need to build relationships with the knowledge base in order to innovate; however, the availability of the necessary financial and human resources to create these linkages and the level of understanding of how to achieve this is not uniform across business.

This role of industry-science linkages is illustrated in Figure 3.1.

It is against this background that a number of industry-science-university programmes have been developed in order to improve the rate of commercialization of technology. Among these are programmes that are aimed at the early stage of the process while others are offered on the basis of dealing with products that are closer to market.

Forms of industry-science collaboration

Collaboration between public research, educational institutions and industry can take many forms (Table 3.1.). These linkages have a direct and indirect impact on the innovative capabilities of firms. Public programmes in support of such linkages can also take various forms: some are available as grants, some as grants that are given as matched funding and others still that are bid based as R&D contracts for government (see also Box C3.1.).

As previously noted the funding gap that exits for commercialising technology is very real and a constraint on the innovation process. The importance of funding programmes to progress technology should not be underestimated as these:

•Give incentives to encourage industrial orientation of R&D;

•Assist with assessing the proof of concept, viability and scalability of products;

•Increase innovation capacity by allowing many more organizations to bring forward technology for commercialization; and

•Improve access to the supply side of the equation, particularly for SMEs that traditionally have not linked with universities.