Transcript Universities and RTO’s: Future cooperation needs

Universities and RTO’s: Future
cooperation needs
Ramon Marimon
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
EARTO, March 3, 2006, Lisbon
EARTO, 03-03-06,
Lisbon
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What we have missed
• The University was an European invention
• But the Research-Entrepreneurial University has been,
possibly, the most profitable US invention in the 20th
Century
• There is no much need to talk about –say, MIT, or
Stanford, or Giorgia-Tech– RTO cooperation…
• The main EU University-RTO cooperation need is to
make the EU universities open and competitive
to make them Research-Entrepreneurial Universities!
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The problem is not
• That EU does not produce PhDs in
Science and Engineering
• That there is no private investment in
University R&D
• That there is no European demand for
frontier research
• That SMEs do not cooperate
• That there are not EU positive UniversityRTO experiences
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If anything
EU
produces
more PhDs
in S&E
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There is private investment
In fact, relative private investment in university
R&D is not lower in EU (6,6%) than in US (US
4,5%) EC, Key Figures 2005.
and R&D/GDP performed in universities is not
lower in EU (0,44%) than in US (0,43%)
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Except that part of the demand is
fulfilled overseas…
• Novartis is moving its main R&D to
Cambridge, US (to be closer to more
than one hundred research groups…)
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and Europe continues to invest
more on R&D abroad
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True, SMEs
play a
larger role
in EU R&D
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But they also know how to
cooperate…
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True, cooperation has improved
and we have positive experiences
• From Framework Programmes
(although NofE has not been a good
instrument for cooperation)
• From the development of University
based Science and Technology Parks
• From closer links of Technology Centers
with Universities
• From a need to “outsource firms’ R&D”
• From greater awareness, e.g., EARTO!
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But, the global picture is weak
• Private funding on higher education (/GDP) is
much lower in EU (0,20%) than in US (1,77%)
and this lack of private funding is not offset by a
higher public funding in EU (1,08%) vs. US
(1,48%).
• Under funded universities are poor partners;
particularly poor if universities
– do not properly reward those who bring in a
successful cooperation
– do not have structures that allow for stable
partnerships with industry (with IPR agreements)
– confuse cooperation with ‘faculty consulting,’
or a way to get public (e.g., FP7) funding
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The solution is not
• To increase, across the border, public
university funding
• Set up ‘European MITs’ (e.g., Italy,
Austria, EIT,…)
Although they may help
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But to change the University
accountability & reward structure
• For the same universities, making them
compete for resources: students,
competitive R&D funds, cooperative RTO
agreements
• For the centers and departments, within
them, making them compete in their fields
• For the faculty and researchers, making
them more mobile and productive
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making & allowing all of them compete
at the EU, and global knowledge
society, level
setting more public funds on a competitive basis
and resources will align with quality…
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resources
US Universities: research rank
vs. resources (per student)
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rank
Ramon Marimon Source: The Lombardi Program on Measuring
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University Performance 2002; The Center
Universities and RTO’s: Future
cooperation needs
• There are many specific needs that
‘need’ to be accounted for: IPR
agreements, better mutual knowledge of
capabilities and needs, etc.
• But, in my opinion, there is one major
need…
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To change the ‘social contract of
cooperation’
• From a ‘short sighted’ contract in which
– universities see cooperation as an
immediate source for cash
– firms, and other RTOs, see cooperation as
a cheap & easy source of knowledge
– both sides see it as minor activity
– both sides are uninterested on the other’s
major activity (e.g., education vs. products)
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• To a ‘long sighted’ contract in which
– both sides see cooperation as part of the
process of knowledge creation
– both sides see the long term rewards of
strengthening education and the economy
– there is no much need to talk about
Universities and RTO’s cooperation
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• For most EU universities, such ‘long
sighted’ contract requires a reform of their
University accountability & reward (&
governance) structures!
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Thanks!
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