Cross-Sector Partnerships: Lessons from Cooperative Research Centers

Interdisciplinary (ID) teams that involve cross-sector stakeholders (e.g., university and industry) present both challenges and opportunities. On the one hand differences in values and goals between cross-sector stakeholders can lead to conflicts that erode trust and add yet another voice to an already complex and fragile interdisciplinary collaboration. At the same time, cross-sector partnerships tend to have an instrumental focus that that can provide both a rationale and a framework for organizing ID teams. If managed correctly, such partnerships can operate from a “collaboration pull” motivation that avoids some of the problems that plague government-mandated  “collaboration push” inititatives. This presentation will examine both the challenges and opportunities inherent in cross-sector interdisciplinary research. Drawing on 25 years experience as an “embedded evaluator” of NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers program, I will highlight scientific, organizational and management factors that encourage and support effective instrumental ID.