R. Barker


 The industry connection is worth further comment. It is important for
several reasons. As a new field, biotechnology offers the opportunity for
universities and industries to work together as the industry grows, forging
a joint effort that partitions basic research and application on a partner-
ship basis. Economic development is, in part, a responsibility of the uni-
versities. They must collaborate with industry and, perhaps especially in
biotechnology where basic research can translate quickly into application,
should protect their role in basic research programs by establishing effec-
tive mechanisms for continuing technology transfer. In these relationships,
industry should see the university-based program as the conduit to the
total spectrum of basic research and, at the same time, as the beginning of
a continuum leading through corporate development to commercializa-
tion.


BIOTECHNOLOGY: IMPORTANCE OF THE RESEARCH
 UNIVERSITY TO INDUSTRY

 Current federal annual expenditures for basic research in biology may
total close to $1 billion. I exclude here much of NIH funding for bio-
medical research which, if it was included, would bring the total close to
$4 billion. Of these amounts, more than $500 million supports work di-
rectly relevant to biotechnology. The rate of scientific progress is rapid.
Discoveries made using one organism are transferred quickly to others.
The field cannot be partitioned easily, requiring those concerned with
commercialization to stay current with the broad field. No corporation
can afford to duplicate enough of the federal effort in-house to be able to
ignore university collaborations. All must have effective interaction with
university scientists. They will differ only in how they choose to do it.
 Those who make best use of the lesson of the last decade, that basic
science can generate very substantial and unexpected economic outcomes
(biotechnology), will find less traditional ways and form close working
relationships. The approaches used by Monsanto with Washington Univer-
sity and Cornell with its collaborators serve as models.
 These strategies have many positive features for the corporations but
they can succeed in the longer term only when a corporation is able to
adjust its social structure to accommodate the university interface. Among
the positive features:

 Access to knowledge in a timely way.
 Enhanced technology transfer.