This module is a selection from a larger module on the Academic / Industrial Interface.
Dr. Manuel Panar
University of Delaware
103 Brown Lab
Newark DE 19716
email panar@udel.edu
One driver of the increasing importance of academic research is industry's need to move to high-technology products to replace ones that have become commodities. In doing so industry often requires expertise in areas in which it does not have strength.
The significance of a material being a commodity is that the company no longer has the advantage in the market which it got from the uniquely high quality of its product or its patent protection. The lowest cost manufacturer may have a commanding edge, and often gets this edge by paying the lowest salary to its workers. As a result the American manufacture of materials such polyester fiber, polyvinyl chloride and polyethylene must compete with producers in countries with a lower wages and often low-cost natural resources. The only way around this situation is to sell high-technology products where the competitive edge is based on intellectual input.
This input can be in new types of products for new functions (superconductivity), better ways of doing an older job (compact disks, biodegradable packaging), or process technology to make something for sufficiently less money than even the low-wage competitor. Process technology is well illustrated by proprietary technology for making TiO2 which keeps the manufacturer in a leading position in a product which might be expected to be a commodity by this time.
In the drive to find newer products which have the economic potential that today's commodities had thirty years ago, companies are undertaking a major restructuring of their commercial interests. In many cases industry is looking for new products in areas which, in past decades, have been primarily the realm of the academic world. For example, in the area of biology, most of the expertise and creativity has traditionally been in the universities.
The need to get into new high-technology businesses puts
industry in the position of trying to excel commercially in areas
in which it lacks long-term expertise. Trying to get into a
product area without a firm knowledge base can be very risky. So
industry is coming to recognize that it must increasingly import
this depth of understanding from academia.
Industry's dependence on the academic world is also dictated by
needs other than the move into new product areas. There are many
reasons why industry may have trouble keeping on top of its
traditional businesses without academic help.
The polymer business is illustrative. Since the 1930's,
polymeric materials have found their major markets in
substituting for conventional materials in a wide range of
applications. Initially, this substitution was usually based on
economic grounds, and was often poorly planned technically. The
result was the historic implication of the word 'plastic' as
being cheap and shoddy. By the 60's substitution for metals,
glass and paper were usually based on properties as well as
economics, and the era of greatest activity began. Synthetics
replaced rubber, paper and glass in packaging, and engineering
resins replaced more and more metals. By the late 70's, the
straight-forward substitutions had been made. Polymers had taken
over applications up to the limits of their inherent properties.
At about this time, polymers ceased to be products, per se, but
became raw materials for more complex products such as blends,
composites, and combinations with inorganics and with metals.
This change took place largely by empirical development. We have
now however, just about used up our intuition. We are unable to
make the kind of advances that are necessary without a basic
understanding of how the system functions, how molecular behavior
under stress or electrical fields effects the bulk properties of
the polymer, and so on. This need is coming at a time when, for
the reasons discussed above, the industrial research resources
are being stretched by the needs of the new businesses.
Industrial research capability has not been increased in pace
with the business goals, and in many cases has fallen behind. The
major source of the knowledge required to advance the field is
the academic world. (Government labs may also play an expanded
role in the future.)
The short term focus of industry is another reason for the
enhanced importance of the academic world. Industry tends to look
at the research budget with the time frame of the financial
community. This attitude is not general across the world, for
example it may not exist in Japan, but it has certainly affected
the American scene. Industrial research is increasingly done in
an environment controlled by development schedules. Basic
knowledge research can rarely produce needed answers at this
pace. Therefore, it will not be practical to initiate a project
in the industrial lab to address a given problem. Instead, it
will become necessary to seek out an academic researcher who has
long term expertise in the particular field, and who therefore
has a good chance of finding the needed answers expeditiously.
This reference to getting the answers needed for a development
project does not imply that the academic researcher is being
asked to do applied work. Underlying most technological problems
are scientific questions fully compatible with the educational
process. Many faculty members have not had to opportunity to
discover how readily such situations can be found. They may
include some of the best basic science research opportunities
available in the coming years.
Possibly the most important need for academic input derives
from the need for environmentally benign synthesis and
processing. The discovery of such processes will often be an
absolute requirement for the ability of a plant to continue to
exist. This need presents a broad opportunity for chemistry and
chemical engineering. There are many situations in which a
company has patent protection for a product, and therefore can
afford to be less proprietary about its synthesis route. This
fact makes it easier for an academic researcher to hear about and
become familiar with the industrial needs.
New low polluting processes are particularly appealing for
industry / academic collaboration because the field needs the
highest level of creativity and novelty. Industry recognizes that
many of these are likely to be found in the academic world.
Improved processes for waste remediation also represent an
opportunity for interaction. Industry often can use technology
which is not proprietary.
To prevent possible communication problems when working with
industry on this topic, academic researchers will have to be
sensitive to the difference between a scientifically exciting
route and a commercially feasible one. This issue will be
discussed below.
The level of basic knowledge research in industry is dropping more rapidly than the published figures for total research and development imply. This fact alone predicts an increased dependence on academic research in the immediate future. Furthermore, industry's interest in supporting basic research internally is cyclical. Industry appears to alternate, with a frequency of decades, between developing technology internally and purchasing it from the outside. American industry seems to have moved in lockstep to one extreme of this cycle. Again the academic world must supply the creativity for this phase.
The points just made apply somewhat differently to various
types of industry. One is that group that puts a large amount of
its own money into research, and which has human resources
equivalent to that of many universities, and physical resources
frequently better. The second is the smaller organization which
often locates itself close to a campus and which has always had a
more immediate need for the help of the university. It is one of
the characteristics of the recent move of large companies into
new fields that they begin to take on many of the characteristics
of the smaller companies.
The ideas that industry needs to maintain its strength will come
from those environments which attract the best researchers. These
researchers will, by and large, be in the universities. As
industry cuts back on leading edge research, it will find
increasingly that the most creative students select an academic
career. The bottom line is that industry will not be able to do
sufficient basic research to keep the level of innovation high,
or to keep its development efforts efficient. The academic labs
must take up this role or American competitiveness will suffer.
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© Manuel Panar 1996