UNIVERSITY INDUSTRY RELATIONSHIPS - HOW DOES THE BELGIAN ACADEMIC COMMUNITY FEEL ABOUT IT

The stimulation of the technology transfer between universities and industry has become an important issue in the technology policy of industrialized nations. Various mechanisms, such as university-based industrial liaison offices and university science parks, have been created to facilitate this technology transfer process. It is believed that those mechanisms are necessary to overcome the barriers which separate the academic and industrial communities. The research reported in this paper examines the attitudes of the Belgian academic community towards university-industry technology transfers. The academic researchers themselves were rather positive about the influence of linkages with industry on their academic activities. It was impossible to detect a real cultural barrier which a priori prevents any kind of collaboration with industry. However, experience with industrial collaborations may affect the attitude of the academic researcher towards industry in a positive direction. The research results also did not offer much support for the thesis that a minimum levels of scientific staff of funding is necessary before a university laboratory can even think of collaborating with industry. The importance of the personal efforts of the academic researcher in creating collaboration opportunities for his laboratory is overwhelming. Transfer mechanisms may offer some, although limited, help in this process. University-industry interactions appear to grow in a spontaneous manner. Transfer policies which try to structure this process too much will undoubtedly fail. Instead, policy-makers should take advantage of the spontaneous process in which academia plays such a constructive role. © 1990.