THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY RESEARCH COOPERATIVES IN DIFFUSING NEW TECHNOLOGY

摘要

University-industry cooperatives exist from the early 1950s. They have served a useful purpose in furthering the cause of forestry by encouraging the collaboration between public and private agencies on projects that require decades of basic and applied research. For a cooperative to be successful, a real need rather than a perceived need has to exist, and a product has to be delivered. The delivery includes the application of results. Many of the cooperative programs have failed within the last decade because of failure of the university administrators to interact closely with their members, and others have struggled mightily because of the industry dispensing of their forest land. Cooperatives that remain viable are the ones that are constantly changing, such as those that have melded the expertise of faculty between universities. The prognosis is that only the most innovative university-industry programs will continue to thrive, and that private research organizations will largely conduct the research of the future. Extension of the research results will fall to the forest owner or to public agencies.