A Study on the Influential Factors in the Development of University Collaboration with Industry

Abstract

The object of this research is to find out the influential factors in the development of collaboration between the academic and industrial circles. Firstly, we conducted a questionnaire survey on the growth indicators and factors of university-industry cooperation on the faculty and liaison staffs in 33 universities, which participated in the "University Intellectual Property Headquarters Development Program" of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology from 2003 to 2007. This survey revealed that the respondents consider the "collaborative" and "sponsored" researches as the most appropriate growth indicators of the cooperation, and financial motivations, such as the necessity to acquire external funds and the increase of subsidies, as its most critical growth factors. Based on the data obtained in the survey, we carried out multiple linear regression analyses with respect to both the number of collaborative research projects and the amount of their in-coming research budget as the objective variables. The results suggest that the government subsidies have boosted universities' awareness of the need of university-industry collaboration, and that it is important to construct the system which supports the activities of the full-time liaison professors for promotion of the collaboration.