İskender Yılgör and Emel Yılgör
Koç University
Introduction
As the late economist Peter Drucker clearly pointed out, “Source of wealth is knowledge.”This is true for individuals, companies and nations. Inability to generate and utilize new knowledge leads to huge gaps in wealth and income between knowledge-based societies (or companies or individuals) and others. New knowledge is generated by Research and Development (R&D) using the Scientific Method, which consists of several steps. For basic scientific research these steps include (i) continuously following the scientific literature and using the knowledge obtained effectively, (ii) designing experiments and making observations, (iii) analyzing the results and making hypothesis, and (iv) developing new theories. For industrial, applied or product-oriented research these steps consist of (i) continuously following the open scientific and patent literature and using the knowledge obtained efficiently, (ii) designing experiments and making observations, (iii) analyzing the results obtained and (iv) generating new products or processes for the company that enables to improve the quality of life.
To be globally competitive R&D is the main driving force for industrial companies, to develop novel, innovative products and technologies. In developed countries, almost all companies, whether well-established and large or a start-up and small rely heavily on R&D to innovate, grow and be successful.
In most developing countries unfortunately R&D is not a priority for industry, which rely mostly on foreign know-how and turn-key technologies for their production and survival. Although on organizational charts most industrial companies indicate having an R&D department, what they usually have is a quality control and product development/optimization group.
As an excuse of not establishing an efficient, innovative and productive R&D departments, most company executives blame it on high cost. Personally, we do not believe this is true. In USA we worked 5 years for a start-up and 5 years for a well-established chemical company as Vice President of R&D and Process Development Manager. In both cases through R&D we were able to generate new knowledge and innovative products with only a few people, with a modest budget. Our responsibilities included tailor designing various polymeric products for specific niche applications, small scale synthesis in the laboratory, product characterization/optimization and pilot scale production. We believe this can easily be done in most chemical companies in Turkey, without much cost if properly planned.
Establishment and implementation of innovative, productive and efficient industrial R&D activities has several critical requirements. Based on our research experience of about 50 years on polymer science in academia and industry, first and most important requirement is finding a well-educated, well-experienced R&D leader who also has managerial experience and can get along well with people. Second requirement is hiring well-educated and knowledgeable personnel. It is also very important to keep the key, successful personnel and make them feel as a part of the company, by offering certain incentives, such as stock options and/or other benefit packages, as done in USA. Another important requirement is establishing a research infrastructure with basic instrumentation for chemical synthesis, product characterization and quality control. The company should also have access to databases for continuous monitoring of new scientific and technological developments in the area of interest and similar fields.
Industry-University collaboration
First examples of university-industry cooperation (or collaboration) were observed in England in early 17th century (1). Such collaborations were also observed in Europe in 18th century and in USA in the 19th century (1, 2). Bayer and BASF started collaborative research with universities in the late 19th century. In the second half of 20th century (after the Second World War) with the inclusion of “research and contribution to economic and social development” in “university education curriculum” in USA, university-industry collaboration started becoming popular and led to the establishment of very effective and productive relationships. Europe and Japan followed the course to benefit from such university cooperations. Latest examples of successful industry-university cooperations include South Korea and China, which helped them tremendously in becoming global powers in R&D and innovation.
Currently, industry-university cooperation is almost a necessity because of various pressures faced by both industry and the universities. For industry, the pressures include rapid technological change that is radically transforming the current competitive environment, shorter product life cycles and intense global competition. For the universities, the pressures include tremendous pace of growth in new knowledge generation, especially from China, increasing cost of R&D, problems faced in funding high-cost research infrastructures and activities and difficulties in finding and attracting the best students and talented faculty members.
Looking at the bright side, such pressures felt by both sides create opportunities for increased and more effective industry-university cooperation. This may help industry to develop innovative products and technologies in a shorter period and improve their competitiveness through knowledge exchange with academic institutions. Furthermore, it may also help industry to hire well-educated research personnel, which is critical for global competition. For universities the advantages include getting involved in leading edge research projects, getting proper funding, getting more recognition and providing better job opportunities to their graduates.
In short, industry-university collaboration plays a key role in contributing to economic development through commercialization of the knowledge generated in terms of reciprocal knowledge transfer. It has been reported that approximately 10% of new products and technologies developed lately, would not have emerged without University-Industry Collaboration (3-5).
Critical requirements for successful Industry-University collaboration
Successful and productive industry-university collaboration has various critical requirements. These requirements are somewhat different for the industry and the university. For university the following requirements are critical. (i) Qualified faculty members with industrial experience or preferably teams of faculty members that has complementary experience in the field to cover all aspects of the research field, (ii) effective and timely management of the project, (iii) talented graduate students and post-docs to carry out the research project, (iv) well-established and well-functioning research laboratories and equipment infrastructure and knowledgeable technical staff to properly analyze the results, (v) timely and effective communication and dissemination of the information or knowledge generated, and (vi) secrecy regarding the knowledge generated.
For industry the following requirements are critical. (i) Project leadership, effective project management and communication, (ii) successful diffusion of the research results generated at the university within the company, (iii) R&D personnel capable of utilizing new knowledge in developing innovative products and processes, and (iv) providing feedback to the university on results generated within the company.
Routes for effective industry- University collaboration
Industry-university collaboration can be implemented using various routes. These include but not limited to, (i) use of university infrastructure by industry, (ii) consulting, (iii) sponsored research, (iv) establishment of university research centers supported by companies or a consortium of industrial companies, (v) technology licensing, (vi) continuing education through short courses organized by the university, and (vii) exchange of graduate students and industrial scientists.
Chemical Industry in Turkey
Turkish Chemical Industry is the second largest after Energy. Unfortunately, just like most other industries, Turkish Chemical Industry is not R&D and Innovation driven. It mainly depends on imports of basic chemicals, intermediates and finished products. Most of these are converted into low value added, commodity products. Therefore, most of the efforts are to increase production, instead of developing high value-added products through R&D. Most executives think R&D is expensive, which is incorrect. If it is well planned, organized and executed effectively it is not expensive. On the other hand, cost of the lost opportunities is usually much bigger than the cost of R&D. We believe it is possible to break down this vicious cycle by well-planned and effective industry-university cooperation in Turkish Chemical Industry (6, 7).
References
1. J. Uglow, The Lunar Men: Five friends whose curiosity changed the world, Faber and Faber 2003.
2. P. Coffey, Cathedrals of Science, Oxford University Press, 2008.
3. OECD (2019), University-Industry Collaboration : New Evidence and Policy Options, OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/e9c1e648-en
4. Awasthy, R., Flint, S., Sankarnarayana, R. and Jones, R.L. (2020), "A framework to improve university–industry collaboration", Journal of Industry - University Collaboration, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 49-62. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIUC-09-2019-0016
5. E. M. M. Valentin, University-industry cooperation: a framework of benefits and obstacles, Industry and Higher Education, June 2000.
6. University-industry collaboration framework, https://www.isotebd.com
7. J. Y. P. Delannoy, Effective industry-academia collaboration driving polymer innovation, ACS Polym. Au 2022, 2, 137-146.
