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institutions; It was not that the British had better science than did Belgium and Frace. It is
very, very seldom that a monopoly on science alone has produce a tremendous spurt in
sustaned ecnomic and soial dividends. Why is it that we do not read that lesson?
According to Ralph Gomory: ... "pull" (b a company) consists of
people who knw wha the
need going out and looking for it -- and finding it -- in a vast universe, rather than asking
outsiders who don't knw the company's situion to throw pieces at it. "Pull" is much more
likely to succeed, moreover, because the burden of finding uses for research belongs not with
universities but with the companies themselves.
A strong science base...cannot ma up for inaquaies in the functioning of the
development and manufacturing cycle (within companies).
With these thoughts in mind, it may be useful to think of the university-industr alliances
and competitiveness in the following manner. The university-industr alliances should be viewed
as a new and creative way to contrbute to excellence in both academe and industry and not as
the major national effort to solve our competitiveness problems. The nature of resech, of
technology development, and of education is changing in many areas of science and engineering -
-parcularly those areas -- electronics, biotechnology and materials, for example, which many
of the alliances are forming. These changes may reflect the fact that boundaes between the
underlying disciplines and between basic resech and applied resech are blurrng, advances
in fundamenta knowledge are becoming relevant to tehnology development in the nea term,
R&D is dependent on, and in some cases limited by, sophisticate and expensive instrmentation;
taented scientists and engineers are in short supply, and product life cycles are becming shortr.
Within ths environment, maintaning resech capacity at the frontiers of knowledge and
maintaning technologica capacity at the frontiers of product and procss innovation require
greater collaboration and interaction between academic and industral scientists and engineers than
has been the norm.
The emerging new alliances, therefore, are essential to maintaing the nation's scientific,
tehnologica and educational base. To the extent that this base contrbutes to our international
competitiveness, the alliances are an importt par of the strtegy. But, we know that the
strategy for ecnomic competitiveness must include many other factors of equal and perhaps even
greater importce.
Strategic Role for Universities
Finally, a word about universities. The alliances are makng their lives more complicate and
more exciting. As pars of these new alliances, universities are assuming vi~ible and explicit
strategic roles in state, federa and industral economic and tehnologica development programs.
This has resulted in increase expetations put upon universities and in greater politica currency
given to university affais, which in turn has produce both strs and benefits within the
university community. Strns result from the differing views over the issue of universityindustr
ties and by the increasing politica interest in universities for possible resech facilties
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