Abstract

Collaboration between universities and private sector manufacturers is an ongoing, significant and accelerating trend. The university research community can shape, speed and contribute to private sector innovation by providing "goods and services" that are too expensive or not readily available to a private sector partner. Some of these goods and services include: basic and applied research; collaborative and contracted research; access to disability and elder populations; identification of market needs; product definition, validation and testing; and clinical trials. Diversification of goods and services offered; effective marketing to the private sector; clear ground rules on intellectual property rights; responsiveness to the culture, protocols and timeframes of the private sector; and recognition of the private sector partner as project leader provides a basis for effective university-private sector partnerships.

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