Re: Academic/commercial collaboration

On Mon, 13 Jan 2003 13:48:23 +0000, Frank Wilson wrote:

>While I would also like to see Academic outputs that fit more directly
>(swiftly) into my commercial needs, experience tells me not to meddle too
>much with research. The risk of academics 'going native' is too great, and
>we would lose what they are good at - real research! How many commercial
>companies contribute to the knowledge base ? (the reverse of Nick's
>criticism).

And Mike Pringle said

>I agree with Frank. Blurring the lines between academic research (for
>knowledge's sake) and commercial interests (for profit's sake) is a
>potentially dangerous area. Ultimately, we all benefit from research, and
>the fact that we may have to wait for it to filter through to a point of
>practical 'usefuleness' is just part of the validation and assimilation
>process. In very simple, generalistic terms, it is the job of research to
>discover new areas of interest/value and the job of the commercial sector to
>glean from that research that which may be useful to its customers.

I agree that there are merits to academic research that should be
safeguarded and protected from the full force of commercialism. The
ability to follow 'interesting' avenues of research without the need for
commercial justification is something worth keeping. However, the best
of such research still contributes something valuable (a subjective
judgment) to su of human knowledge.

It is my impression that there is too much research (some from my own
past) which is done to gain kudos, publications, grants, and doesn't
actually do anything useful. If someone in a unversity is looking for
research subjects, it seems to me surely a useful thing if industry can
give some direction to ensure that the outputs are useful to someone.

I would also say to Mike that industry is constantly discovering new
areas of interest and value. That's the nature of commercial innovation.

It's a fair point from Frank to ask how many commercial companies
contribute to the knowledge base - although even if the answer is none
it still doesn't invalidate my main point. However many companies do.
There are many commercial research companies who make information
available, either for fee or free, and sometimes this is more
sophisticated and related to the real world than comparable academic
work. Even companies like the one I work for commissions research which
may be made public in presentations - or even in forums like this.

*    Nick Gassman - eCommerce Manager - [email protected]     *
              * http://www.britishairways.com *

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