Technology Transfer Systems in the United States and Germany Lessons and Perspectives (1997) / Chapter Skim
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Conclusions and Recommendations
Conclusions and Recommendations
Pages 35-52
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From page 35... ...
. This comparative study suggests that there are promising opportunities for mutually beneficial collaboration between public and private German and U.S.
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From page 36... ...
Research publications, conferences, and the movement of research personnel from academic and related institutions to industrial research organizations are primary modes of technology transfer in highly dynamic, science-based industries such as biotechnology and software. However, they are relatively less important avenues of technology transfer in technologically more slowly advancing or mature sectors such as the automotive or electrical machinery industries.
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From page 37... ...
In Germany, the An-Institutes were created as legally independent bodies that could operate outside of the heavily regulated environment of universities. In both countries, the industry-oriented research institutes must try to meet the transfer needs of small companies, adapt to new demands of their clients, build competencies in emerging areas, and compete and cooperate effectively with other nonindustrial technology transfer institutions within their respective national R&D systems.
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From page 38... ...
have yielded enhanced communication and cross-institutional learning among organizations, as well as rapid incremental innovation and technology diffusion in several technologically mature industries. To summarize: The German innovation system is organized to excel in the application of new technologies that increase the performance of existing industries.
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From page 39... ...
This is due to a range of social, legal, structural, and cultural factors in Germany, many of which have very little to do with the performance of German R&D and technology transfer institutions proper. These factors include weak venture capital and limited public equity markets; unsupportive labor, company, and bankruptcy laws; and impediments related to the tax code and other regulations.
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From page 40... ...
federal laboratories subordinate support for any particular industry to their broader public mission and tend to serve a broader population of industries through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements, licensing, and other technology transfer activities than their German counterparts. In Germany, the semipublic Fraunhofer institutes have the explicit mission of technology transfer; many departments of the large Helmholtz Centers work in areas that are strategically relevant for industry, and many R&D programs of the Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research, and Technology have an explicit focus on technology transfer through universityindustry collaboration.
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From page 41... ...
designed to exploit the opportunities and address a number of the major challenges facing their respective national technology transfer systems. In addition, the full binational panel has developed a limited number of joint recommendations aimed at expanding mutually beneficial international collaboration in basic and applied R&D and technology transfer among Germany, the United States, and other nations.
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From page 42... ...
Therefore, the delegation suggests that incentives to foster such spin-offs be improved through changes in the German legal, tax, and finan cial frameworks. The delegation recommends the creation of special tax deductions for and public reinsurance of venture capital, equivalent to the existing system for foreign investment.
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From page 43... ...
Special tax incentives should be introduced to foster research grants. These should include some mix of tax deductions (deductions from taxable income)
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Like American universities, German universities should be able to obtain full title to inventions developed with public support, be completely relieved of return flows of license fees to publicly sponsored institutions, and should be allowed to license patents exclusively to private enterprises. The delegation also recommends a more active patent policy for departmental research institutes and Blue List institutes, based on measures similar to those suggested for universities.
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From page 45... ...
Steps toward this objective could include the development of technology road maps by federal agencies, working in collaboration with industry, that would encourage private industry to engage in similar exercises50 (see Recommendation 2, below) ; working with industry associations to identify regulatory changes that might promote the collective definition and diffusion of best practices in regulated industries; and amendments to the R&D tax credit that would foster collaborative R&D in technology areas, including those defined above.
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From page 46... ...
During the past decade, industrial R&D consortia have become increasingly important vehicles of industrial technology transfer in the United States. Despite their proliferation across a growing number of industries, there has been remarkably little knowledge transfer concerning successful organizational and operational practices among the diverse, highly distributed, and relatively autonomous population of consortia.
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From page 47... ...
research universities or constituent graduate schools appear to have developed effective policies and practices for managing their R&D and technology transfer interactions with industrial partners. However, considerable evidence suggests that many more of the nation's research universities are still struggling to develop policies and practices that will engage industry more extensively in mutually beneficial research and technology transfer.
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From page 48... ...
governments catalyze transatlantic efforts to develop a set of mutually agreed-upon principles that will help the United States and member states of the European Union to recognize and implement arrangements for mutually beneficial transatlantic collaboration involving public and private institutions in R&D and technol ogy transfer. The panel recognizes that many of the seemingly intractable impediments to
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From page 49... ...
The panel believes that mutual observance of these principles by German and U.S. organizations will help overcome many of the impediments to mutually beneficial transatlantic collaboration in R&D and technology transfer identified above and will encourage R&D-funding and R&D-performing institutions based in other countries to follow their lead.
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From page 50... ...
The panel believes that Germany, the United States, and other countries would benefit significantly from the development of a transatlantic network of technical information centers that could develop common technical standards and interfaces, enable interconnection, foster collaboration in database building, and so forth. Binational and multinational initiatives linking centers based in the United States, Germany, and the rest of the European Union could serve as a stimulus (demonstration projects)
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From page 51... ...
The panel believes there are opportunities for mutually beneficial binational and international collaboration of industrial R&D consortia and industrial research associations in areas of generic application-oriented research, generally of a precompetitive character. A binational effort to enhance information exchange regarding cooperative industrial R&D activities in Germany and the United States could serve as a stimulus to further transatlantic as well as global collaboration among national consortia and research associations on generic precompetitive research projects of common interest.
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From page 52... ...
and German technology transfer institutions and has identified several promising opportunities for mutually beneficial transatlantic and international collaboration in applied research and technology transfer.
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