Industrial Interactions
Developing strong relationships between academia and industry is one of the most important parts of the NSECs’ mission. University scientists can perform the basic research that will provide the foundation for new techniques to be used in industry and innovative products and processes that will ultimately benefit the people and nations of the world. Corporations, on the other hand, often have much more experience and expertise in areas such as reducing concepts to practice, bringing products to market, and managing intellectual property issues. And small start-up firms are able to take risks that larger institutions cannot, as well as to move much more quickly to take advantage of immediate opportunities. It is therefore crucial that strong linkages be formed between academia and industry so that knowledge can be shared in all directions.
NSECs interact with industry in a number of ways. All are expected to maintain industrial advisory boards, comprised of scientists and managers who work in industry in the same or related fields as the centers’ scientists. These boards, which generally meet at least annually, provide guidance to the centers in terms of research direction and strategy. Most NSECs also have some mechanism for formal collaboration with appropriate companies. For example, a center may support bridging postdocs who split their time between university and industrial labs with mentors on both sides. Under another model, a company may provide financial support for a graduate student’s research, with input into the student’s project commensurate with the level of support. In addition, there are various formal and informal interactions between scientists at both kinds of institutions such as seminars, consulting agreements, and other normal professional communications.
These interactions provide many benefits for both companies and universities. They help ensure that academic research moves in directions that support and complement industrial needs. They also provide students and postdocs with career opportunities outside of the limited positions in academia, and allow companies access to the best up-and-coming young scientists. Finally, these collaborations ensure that the next generation of scientists and engineers will have the necessary skills and experience to handle the challenges of the years to come and solve the problems of the future.
NSF-SIA Nanoelectronics Research Initiative
The Nanoelectronics Research Initiative is a consortium of Semiconductor Industry Association member companies working with universities to explore emerging areas of nanoscale research of interest to the semiconductor industry. They share a specific goal of extending Moore’s Law far beyond the limits of CMOS technology by developing novel computing devices with critical dimensions below 10 nm within the next fifteen years.
In conjunction with NSF, SIA/NRI is funding a number of graduate student and postdoctoral fellowship supplements to existing NSF-funded nanoelectronics centers. The NSECs at Harvard and Columbia both received supplements in the first round of competition. For more information, please see the official program announcement at http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=501009.
Connecting Upstream Science to Market Needs: Structured Workshops at Nanoscience Centers
The global investment in basic nanoscience research has been huge, but so far the number of commercially viable products and services generated from this investment has been less than expected. The potential is there, however it may be as long as another twenty years before a significant amount of tangible applications of nanotechnology is widely available. One reason for this is that scientists are not generally trained to make the leap from the lab to the marketplace; another is that industry is often not made aware of breakthroughs with commercial potential at a sufficiently early stage. With NSF support, the Center for Innovation Management Studies at North Carolina State University is developing a series of structured workshops based on their research on business processes that are designed to connect academia more effectively with industry in order to tackle these issues. These workshops are expected to have a significant impact on the quality and outcomes of the interaction between companies and research faculty. One of the first workshops will be held at the Northeastern University NSEC in the spring of 2007.