Technology transfer between basic research and industry

Pure science-driven incentives and applied industrial and technology policy have seldom produced significant synergy. The demarcation between basic and applied research is still valid, yet from the industrial and macro-economic point of view this classification has become obsolete and the pursuit towards common welfare should be prioritized. This paper studies what steps should be taken in a large-scale basic research centre to produce, in a more efficient way, both the epistemic utilities required by the scientific community and the practical utilities demanded by industrial and national institutions. The aim is to develop an approach that enables industrial companies to consolidate themselves with the technologies and other services needed to accomplish major basic research experiments. The paper provides an overview of the concepts describing the technology transfer, diffusion and innovation functions in an organization and how they should be implemented into the strategy and operational activities of a basic research centre. The paper concludes that without organized and well focused interaction with industry the gains from basic research are not exploited. It presents various scenarios of cooperation and practical suggestions to accomplish fertile communication between academic community and industry. The key factor in collaboration is in learning by interacting; thus, being part of the knowledge creation process, the prospects for both scientific inventions and industrial innovations are established. The underlying case is that of CERN and especially the 10-year accelerator project at its commencement. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd