Universities as Research Partners

Universities are a key institution in the US innovation system and an important aspect of their involvement is the role they play in Private-Public Partnering activities. This study seeks to gain a better understanding of the performance of university-industry research partnerships using a sample survey of pre-commercial research projects funded the U.S. government's Advanced Technology Program. Although results must be interpreted cautiously due to the small size of the sample, the study finds that projects with university involvement tend to be in areas involving "new" science and therefore experience more difficulty and delay but also are more likely not to be aborted prematurely. We interpret this finding to imply that universities are contributing to basic research awareness and insight among the partners in ATP-funded projects. We are grateful for comments from Lee Baldwin, Adam Jaffe, Don Siegel, and participants at the ASSA 2000 meetings in Boston and the Wake Forest University economics workshop on an earlier version of this paper. Also, we appreciate the suggestions and guidance of Rosalie Ruegg and Jeanne Powell, both of the Advanced Technology Program, during the data collection stage.