Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reported on the Federal role in fostering university-industry cooperation. The report developed information and guidelines to enable policymakers to assess whether new or revised Federal initiatives are needed and how they could be designed to ensure that expected outcomes are consonant with the policy objective of fostering closer links between the two sectors.
GAO found that the Federal Government has played a significant role in supporting basic and applied research both at universities and high technology firms and in supplying money to create and continue cooperative research and development. GAO concluded that Federal policy initiatives intended to foster closer links between universities and industry should be designed to: (1) relate policy objectives to expected outcomes; (2) use the most appropriate type of collaborative arrangement; and (3) make any targeted financial support contingent upon evidence that the partners proposing the institutional arrangement are prepared to address the generic differences between the two sectors and that the critical factors essential to reconciling them are in place or realizable.
