Round Table

Are you interested in Science Policy? What about Science Politics? Have a piece of PIZZA and drink plenty of BEER while scientists from around the world describe the mechanics of Academy-Industry interaction in their countries and discuss about the best way to promote the participation of Academy in the technological development of México. Among the participants you’ll find:

• Dr. Joseph Greene (Univ. Illinois USA)
• Dr. Yukio Yasuda (Nagoya Univ., Japón)
• Dr. Massimo Sancrotti (Laboratorio Nazionale TASC-INFM, Trieste, Italia)
• Dr. Hanns-Ulrich Habermeier (Max-Planck Institut, Alemania)
• Dr. Piero Pianetta (Stanford Univ., USA)
• Dr. Jose M. Albella (Instituto Ciencia de Materiales, CSIC España)
• Dr. Juan Manuel Figueroa (CICATA, México)
• Dr. Feliciano Sánchez (I.P.N., México)

For more information, please contact Dr. Alberto Herrera (alberto@ciateq.mx)

back to main

********************************************************************

I will introduce the framework for the partnership between universities and industry in Japan. We have the following 3 main systems which have been promoted by Japanese Government. This report focuses in the framework and approaches with national universities and, however, most public and private universities also have similar systems.

(1) Joint Research

This research refers to researches conducted by researchers from private corporations and professors from national universities on an equal level on issues common to both parties. The payment of research cost and fees is made by the corporation. This system started in 1983. The number of accepted cases has in creased from 56 cases in 1983 to 2,362 cases in 1977 in Japan.

(2) Commissioned Research

This research refers to researches conducted publicly by professors of national universities under the commission of private corporations. The amount of money and the number of cases in this research have increased from 2,6 billion yen ( appr. 120yen/US dollar ) and 1286 cases in 1983 to 33,3 billion yen and 4500 cases in 1977, respectively.

(3) Grants and Endowments

This system refers to the financial donation made to national universities by private corporations and individuals for the purpose of enhancing scientific research and educational activities. Endowed chairs can be held and Funded Research Departments can be set up with such grant contributions. The amount of money has increased from 8 billion yen in 1983 to 52 billion yen in 1977. This system has no obligation to donors. In order to promote these systems, preferential treatment in the tax system is given. For example, corporations can include the total amount of grant contributions in their losses. And also 80% of national universities have centers for cooperative research which serve as a window to coordination and cooperation between universities and the community. Recently, Technology Licensing Organization (TLO) begins to be set up actively in the main universities in order to support licensing in universities and their practical uses for industry.

******************************************************************

Interactions between industry and my institution take many different forms. Within the academic departments of Stanford, the interactions are mainly in the form of research programs with particular faculty or joint industry funding of a center directed towards a particular area such as semiconductor technology, polymers etc. In the context of my laboratory (SSRL) which is a Department of Energy funded national user laboratory, industry participation also comes in various forms. These include performing experiments as a standard research user, performing proprietary research for which the company is charged at a fixed rate, as well as performing analytical measurements as part of a consortium of companies. This talk will give a brief description of these different forms of collaboration with industry and the benefits that the institution derives from them.

******************************************************************

Karl Eberl*

In Germany there are different kinds of institutions with varying level of Industrial interaction:

(1) Universities:

There is a close collaboration with small and large companies. It originates often from former Students who left the University to start a job in a company and than later on they have a problem and come back to the Prof. to ask for help or to start a common Government funded project. In order to get a Government funded project it is always helpful to have some collaboration with companies. It also happens that Ph.D. students start their own company during their time at the University.

(2) Fraunhofer Instituts:

We have about 50 different Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany. They are expected to have very deep collaboration with Industry. It is such that they must earn 50% of their income by Industry contracts.

(3) Max-Planck Instituts:

We have about 60 Max-Planck-Instituts in Germany. The MPIs are more concentrating on basic science of all different kinds (Biology, Medicine, Physics, etc.) There is not so much Industry collaboration in the MPIs.

Government provides funding to projects which include Industry collaboration preferentially Spin off of small companies is supported financially. It is important to have a critical number of research and science institutes in one place to initiate Spin offs and intensive interaction. It should be a good mixture of Universities, research institutes and competing Companies to form a center of excellence. The close contact of researchers working in different fields allows to associate ideas form different areas. It is much more efficient to have the institutes and high tech companies close together in one area rather than having them spread out to much across the country.

******************************************************************

Research interactions between university and industrial scientists in the US have increased over the past few years due to a variety of forces including: (1) a decrease in industrial funding for basic research, (2) a decrease in the availability of basic research facilities in industrial laboratories, (3) a dramatic increase in the number of University Professors competing for a roughly constant amount of government resources, and (4) increased funding of joint industry/national-laboratory/university projects. Common types of university/industry interactions include the following: consulting, university "testing agreements," materials analyses and microcharacterization of industrial samples carried out at universities, direct research contracts from companies to universities, summer interns for graduate students, sabbaticals, and jointly funded governmental research contracts.

******************************************************************

Professor Albella exposition will deal with the following issues:

• General overview of the Spanish organization of research
• Spanish Programmes related with the promotion of technological research in collaboration with academic center.
• Support received from the academic institutions.
• European programmes on material science research, in particular the recently approved V Framework Programme.

******************************************************************

An overview of a number of co-operative links activated in Italy between Academy (University, Funding Agencies, Institutions, etc.) and Industries will be given. This will include examples organized locally and others triggered via the European Union. Special emphasis will be devoted to the domain of condensed matter physics and materials science.

******************************************************************

******************************************************************

back to top

back to main

The Sponsorship of Grupo Modelo is acknowledged.