Science & engineering: Close encounters of industry and academia

There remains a divide between fundamental research and more applied work, but the signs are that the gap is closing, says Stephen Pritchard

A PhD is ideal preparation for a career within academia. Its findings or results, however, are frequently rather abstract or narrow - or at least that is how it seems to the outside world.

As a result, businesses are less interested in PhDs than in higher education as a whole. In North America, companies commonly sponsor doctoral students. Firms recruit them in larger numbers than in the UK, and the pay for doctoral graduates is higher, too.

In the past decade, universities have increased their links with industry significantly. It is now rare to find a higher education institution without an industrial liaison officer, and external funding from businesses accounts for a significant proportion of the money for research. This is concentrated in the sciences, engineering, and fields such as computing, where the commercial value of academic work is easier to quantify than in the social sciences or arts.

Even so, there is still a divide, in the minds of both academics and industrialists, between fundamental research and more applied work. This approach has meant that the PhD has remained relatively unaffected by universities' increasing industrial links.

Companies have sensitivities about publications and confidentiality, which run against the grain of much of the supervision and assessment of a PhD student. Universities may harbour doubts that applied research can be "academic enough" to merit a doctorate. Some academics continue to look askance at the notion of carrying out research with a commercial partner.

Attitudes, though, are changing on both sides. "There are an awful lot of academics who work with the research councils and industry, and the research councils are demanding that academics have good, complementary links with industry," says Dr Sarah Anderson, research development officer at Keele University.

As Dr Anderson points out, the pressure on universities to teach transferable skills, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, means research is becoming less insular. "There is much better preparation for working in a commercial environment as well as an academic environment. This is seen as attractive to potential research staff."

Senior academics are also more open to the idea that applied research, perhaps carried out for a company, can have the intellectual rigour and originality that is needed for a PhD.

One area making an impact, albeit on a small scale financially, is CASE - Collaborative Awards in Science Engineering. Under CASE, students receive an extra pounds 1,500 to pounds 2,000 a year, and the sponsoring company gives some assistance to the project. The majority of studentships granted by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are CASE-augmented. The step from small-scale funding to full industrial sponsorship is more difficult, say academics.

Professor Chris Ellis is dean of the faculty of design, engineering and the built environment at the University of East London. The university works closely with several large companies, including Ford and Thames Water.

"It is rare for industry to directly fund research projects of a PhD nature," he says. "The whole nature of a PhD student's progression is speculative. If it is industry, it tends to be a focused project that employs a research assistant. You would not guarantee a PhD out of it."

Industry, though, can still reap substantial rewards. Prof Ellis cites examples of techniques developed by students saving as much as pounds 250,000 for their employers. "Universities have an impact to make on these projects with real bottom-line benefits," he says.

Firms are taking their own steps to bolster research collaboration. In the US, the corporate university is already established as a vehicle for training, management education and research.

Here, corporate universities are at an early stage, concentrated within firms in the engineering sector such as Unipart's Unipart U and British Aerospace's Virtual University.

BAe's initiative is an example of how industry and academia may work together in years to come. The Virtual University brings together BAe's existing training facilities and its Sowerby Research centre near Bristol, and existing work with over 50 universities.

The Virtual University is not intended to replace BAe's existing links. However, Dr Geraldine Kenney-Wallace, who came from the University of Toronto to head the Virtual University, sees a time when researchers and even doctoral students will be based at BAe sites.

"Projects with industry are still complex and challenging," says Dr Kenney- Wallace. Industry collaboration helps financially at a time when the national infrastructure for research is stretched, and it provides opportunities for bright young researchers.

"It is very difficult to keep up the type of research you need to be world-class," says Dr Kenney-Wallace. "By sponsoring fellowships as collaborative research projects, it is a win-win situation."