University of Manchester Computer Science Department - Technical Report Number: 95-8-1
Author: Thomas Haigh.
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ABSTRACT:
The academic discipline of computer science owes its existence to the industrial development of computer technology; the computer industry owes its existence to work undertaken by academic researchers. Close links have always existed between the two, and ideas, equipment and personnel have flowed between them.
The funding of academic research by industry, and the 'exploitation' of research results by universities, are now the subject of more interest and activity than ever before. This report examines the current state of relations between universities and industry in computer science, with particular reference to the characteristics of different kinds of formal and informal relationship, such as research sponsorship, consultancy agreements and technology licensing, and the advantages and disadvantages which each potentially offers to participants. Considerable attention is paid to the special characteristics of computer technology, computer science research and the computer industry which make certain kinds of interaction more productive and widespread than others.
Polices regarding ownership of intellectual property, the establishment of start-up companies and other controversial topics are examined. The role of personal relationships and tacit knowledge is scrutinised, as are the different roles given to formal university bodies in regulating what are essentially relationships between individuals. Where significant, differences between observed activities in the UK and US are analysed.
Primary source material is a series of 27 in depth interviews undertaken with a range of professionals working in university departments and research teams, central university offices and corporate managerial capacities in both the US and UK. These are supplemented by references to a range of research literature and by a concise account of the historical and political background to current patterns of research support.
NOTE: The entire report is available in fully browsable HTML form by using the links below - for speed of retrieval individual section had been split into separate sections with links between them. For off-line use or production of hard copy they also allow downloading the whole thing as a compressed PostScript file for printing out (with a suitable printer) or reading with a viewer such as Ghostscript. Paper copies are available from the address at the foot of this document.
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Thanks to : All the interviewees, my supervisor Richard Girodano, Suzi Howe at Brown, John Leech at MIT, Henry Lowendorf at Yale, AUTM, Jeff Butler at the Business School, Simon Ritchie at BT and Andy & Mark, my long suffering proof readers. Also to ICL for sponsorship throughout my degree programme.
Special Thanks to Chris Batty and the Royal Academy of Engineering who made this work possible with a bursary to meet the costs of visiting the US and by providing further support for travel within the UK. Also to the Blau-Shane family for hospitality above and beyond the call of duty.
Technical Report Series Legal Note:
Copyright 1995. All rights reserved. Reproduction of all or part of this work is permitted for educational or research purposes on condition that (1) this copyright notice is included, (2) proper attribution to the author or authors is made and (3) no commercial gain is involved.
Recent technical reports are issued by the Department of Computer Science, Manchester University, are available by anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.man.ac.uk in the directory pub/ftp. The files are stored as PostScript, in compressed form, with report number as filename. They can also be obtained on WWW via URL http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/cstechrep/index.html. Alternatively, all reports are available by post from The Computer Library, Department of Computer Science, The University, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.