Engineering schools must market their research services to these companies in addition to larger ones. For companies, they offer a more satisfying interaction with the university. In ensuing discussion, it was observed that marketing to small companies is more labor-intensive than marketing to larger ones, so universities need to work harder. Structuring Partnerships with Industry Strong, productive partnerships with industry, this subgroup reported, require a degree of structure that academics may find uncomfortable. While many partnerships with industry have been mounted over the years, sustaining them is a serious problem.
Most faculty have no industrial work experience.
In the following discussion, it was suggested that NSF and other grant-making agencies should explicitly reward young engineering faculty for building partnerships with industry, to counteract the problem of tenure incentives. More incentives along this line are needed. For example, NSF should consider scoring proposals partly for the extent and quality of industrial interaction. Doing so, however, runs counter to the academic culture, which traditionally considers students to be the only deliverables. Academic-industrial research and technology centers, such as ERCs, provide good platforms for these activities.