Seeking University-Industry Balance

The relationship between university and industry is becoming more and more important. A proper amalgam of the different and at times conflicting objectives can bring long range benefits. By contrast, disconcerted actions while possibly leading to short term but incongruous advantages is surely a source of long range damage. Such critical circumstances appear unprecedented: only few years ago the fortunes of universities and industries seemed almost totally disconnected. Only a few researchers paid any attention to particular facets of this issue and their analysis seemed mainly speculative studies. Essentially, the process of wealth generation was only weakly related to the process of knowledge production. In reality, the former has always been a consequence of the latter, but the temporal separation of the two processes meant that other parameters, such as control of (conventional) raw materials, political supremacy, and monopolistic dominance of the market, attenuated possible university-industry mismatches.