Perspectives on a New Paradigm for Cooperative Research

New partnership paradigms are appearing today as American industry seeks new ways to meet international competition. This challenge is a primary national need. Industrial cooperation with universities, government, and companies is being promoted to identify, develop, and apply technologies to new products in a more timely and effective manner. This paper gives one company's perspectives on improving cooperation to leverage resources and improve our national position in the global technology competition. To provide a perspective, the history of support of engineering and science research by the Federal government and by industry is reviewed. Several models of cooperation between universities, industry, and government are cited, noting trends and areas open for innovation. A suggested new paradigm for cooperation is described. Example cooperative projects of Control Data are identified. An implementation by Control Data of the new paradigm, the Engineering Center Network, is described in some detail.