Army R&D Collaboration and the Role of Globalization in Research; Research rept

摘要

Given that budgets are always constrained and R&D managers are never able to do all the worthwhile projects that are proposed to them, it is important to have some way to think about the relative and absolute value of various R&D investment options. In industry, this is normally done by expressing the return on investment (ROI). The ROI is typically calculated by dividing the cost of the work by the value of the improvement in an existing product, or the value of a new product. In the Army there is no bottom line analogous to net profit; rather, there are improvements in warfighting and related capabilities, improvements that may be hard to evaluate in terms of dollars. The Army's Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (DAS (RT)) seeks better ways to evaluate proposals for developing new or improved technologies to support the warfighter. Currently, these decisions are usually made in accordance with evaluations of the R&D proposals by groups of experts drawn from the technical community and representatives of the warfighters. Implicit in such evaluations is a subjective judgment by each of the participants of the relative and absolute value to the Army. The absolute value of the new or improved technology is often considered in terms of increases in lethality, survivability, or both. Other improvements include improved accuracy or speed in the acquisition cycle and more efficient manufacturing and test and evaluation. This paper considers a number of approaches to collaboration in research. In particular, examples of collaboration governed by some form of written agreement or contract are discussed. Following these sections, data are reviewed that show the rising level of competence in research in countries around the world; these data show the potential value of international collaboration for improving the effectiveness of Army S&T.