University-industry collaboration on technology transfer: Views from the ivory tower

This article reports the results of a national survey that examines the concerns of American faculty about close university-industry collaboration and explores how these concerns may impinge upon their participation in industrial innovation. The data show that while academics are generally, bur cautiously, in favor of close collaboration, they live with deep tension that is caused by two powerfully competing realities: the instrumental need for industry funding, and the intrinsic need to preserve intellectual freedom. A challenge to public policy is to fashion a positive-sum strategy (e.g., tax incentives) in which firms would be encouraged to increase funding for their academic collaborators, who then may fulfill their research mission better while contributing to industrial innovation.