Working Partnerships in Higher Education Industry and Innovation doc

WORKING PARTNERSHIPS IN HIGHER EDUCATION, INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION FINANCIAL OR INTELLECTUAL IMPERATIVES GLENDA KRUSS Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Published by HSRC Press Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa www.hsrcpress.ac.za © 2005 Human Sciences Research Council First published 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN 0-7969-2108-3 Cover by FUEL Design Print management by comPress Distributed in Africa by Blue Weaver Marketing and Distribution PO Box 30370, Tokai, Cape Town, 7966, South Africa Tel: +27 +21 701-4477 Fax: +27 +21 701-7302 email: orders@blueweaver.co.za Distributed worldwide, except Africa, by Independent Publishers Group 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60610, USA www.ipgbook.com To order, call toll-free: 1-800-888-4741 All other inquiries, Tel: +1 +312-337-0747 Fax: +1 +312-337-5985 email: Frontdesk@ipgbook.com Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Contents List of tables and figures v Preface vi Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations x 1 Mapping industry partnerships across the higher education sector 1 The aim of mapping partnerships 1 Designing a process to map partnerships across the sector 7 Analysing partnerships in the South African higher education institutional landscape 14 Outline of this book 19 2 Describing partnerships in institutions with high technology capacity 21 Defining ideal types of partnership – drawing on the literature 21 Conceptions of partnership at the 18 institutions 26 Initiating partnerships 34 Coverage and contribution of partnerships 45 Products and outcomes of partnership 57 Summary 68 3 Patterns of partnership in the three high technology fields 73 The tension between financial and intellectual imperatives 73 Traditional forms of partnership 76 Dominant new forms of partnership 77 Entrepreneurial forms of partnership 79 ‘Network’ forms of partnership 79 Mapping partnerships in the three fields of focus 81 Understanding forms of partnership 99 4 Facilitating and constraining industry partnerships in diverse institutional contexts 101 Mapping institutional responses to partnership in high technology fields 101 Harnessing innovation potential 107 Emergent entrepreneurialism 123 Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za ‘Laissez faire’ aspirational 134 ‘Laissez faire’ traditional 148 Higher education institutional responses to partnership 163 5 Emergent alternative partnership practices 167 Why and how do these institutions differ? 168 What are the emergent alternative approaches? 176 6 Innovation, partnerships and higher education 189 A national system of innovation? 190 Understanding partnerships within institutions 199 Facilitating or constraining partnerships in different kinds of institutions 202 Appendix 1: Dimensions of partnership used in the design of instruments 209 Appendix 2: Institutional profile template 215 Appendix 3: Total number of active researchers in the three high technology fields in each institution 220 Appendix 4: Total research output by higher education institutions 222 Appendix 5: NRF-rated scientists by higher education institutions 224 Appendix 6: Total higher education institution research income 226 Bibliography 229 Index 247 Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za List of tables and figures Tables Table 1.1 Assessing high technology capacity in this study 17 Table 2.1 Research income by source in the higher education sector, 1996–2000 46 Table 4.1 Defining features of ideal types of institutional response to partnerships 105 Figures Figure 2.1 A continuum of attitudes towards partnership with industry 34 Figure 3.1 Analysing forms of partnership in South Africa 75 Figure 4.1 Higher education institutional responses to partnership 102 Figure 4.2 Location of institutions by type of partnership response: high technology capacity 164 Figure 5.1 Location of institutions by type of partnership response: emergent alternatives 177 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za PREFACE Working partnerships: Higher education, industry and innovation in South Africa An ideal vision of the role of research partnerships between higher education and industry in a rapidly globalising knowledge economy is becoming prevalent. However, there is a great deal of dissonance between this vision and the realities of research, innovation and development in the South African context, characterised by fragmentation, inequalities and unevenness. Thus, we have a major knowledge gap about partnerships in South Africa. We have a general agreement that they are a social and economic ‘good’ and that it is desirable that collaborative partnerships and networks are formed. We have a great deal of literature on the possible forms they take in other countries, their benefits and difficulties. However, we have absolutely no sense of the extent to which this vision is becoming actualised in South Africa. Significantly, in the South African case, rather than a focus on measuring the impact or understanding the ways in which specific features of partnerships work in order to improve practice, there is a prior research concern to open up the field and map out what exists, as a basis for more detailed investigation. The study of necessity will be primarily an exploratory one, aiming to open up the field and lay a basis for more detailed and in-depth investigations. The Human Sciences Research Council’s research programme on Human Resource Development has undertaken a project to explore the extent to which the networked practices that are believed to characterise the knowledge economy have indeed begun to penetrate South African higher education and industry. Where networks and partnerships have developed, how have they taken form and shape in the South African context, with specific national policy and economic imperatives? To what extent is there evidence of collaboration in knowledge generation, diffusion and/or application that will ultimately contribute to innovation? In what ways has government succeeded in promoting such partnerships? What are the kinds of changes and benefits partnerships are bringing about in both higher education and industry? vi Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Three high technology bands have been identified as priorities for developing a national system of innovation that will improve South Africa’s international competitiveness and economic development. The relatively new high technology fields of information and communication technology, biotechnology and new materials development have been identified as most likely to generate benefits for South Africa. These were selected as the empirical focus for the study. Understanding the conceptions and practices of research partnerships in each of these three fields will inform understanding of responsiveness to high technology needs and innovation in South Africa. This large-scale empirical study is primarily exploratory, aiming to open up the field and lay down benchmark descriptions of the partnership and network activity emerging in South African higher education and industry. It does so through a series of audits and mapping exercises, and through a series of in-depth case studies. The study was conceptualised in terms of four distinct but closely inter- related sub-studies or components. Each empirical study will be disseminated in a separate title in the series, Working Partnerships in Higher Education, Industry and Innovation. Component One was largely conceptual. It provided an entry point into the conceptual and comparative literature on higher education–industry partnerships, as well as an introduction to the ‘state of the art’ in each of the three high technology fields in South Africa, to lay a foundation for the entire study. Component Two aimed to illuminate government’s role in promoting research partnerships by exploring the forms of government contribution through the Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme (THRIP) and the Innovation Fund, and the extent and nature of resultant partnerships. Data was gathered on industry and higher education beneficiaries, on the nature of co-operation at project level, and selected measures of the outputs of the co-operation. The monograph, Government incentivisation of higher education–industry research partnerships in South Africa, showed how partnerships, networks and innovation are developing amongst beneficiaries of government-incentivised funding in general, and in the three high technology fields specifically. PREFACE vii Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Component Three, this book, aimed to map the higher education landscape in order to investigate the scale and form of research linkages and collaborative practices between higher education institutions and industry in each of the three fields. Given the uneven capacity of higher education institutions and their differential historical legacies, and given different modes of operation of different knowledge fields, it explores whether partnerships develop and take different forms in different institutional and knowledge contexts. Component Four, entitled Creating Knowledge Networks, focuses on the demand side, at enterprise level in industrial sectors related to the three high technology fields. In a limited set of cases, we explore the dynamics of partnerships in-depth, unpack their multi-linear, contingent and tacit dimensions, and consider the impact on enterprise productivity, technological innovation and knowledge production in each of the three fields. Glenda Kruss Project Leader WORKING PARTNERSHIPS: FINANCIAL OR INTELLECTUAL IMPERATIVES viii Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Acknowledgements There are many individuals and organisations that have contributed directly and indirectly to the research study. First and foremost are the research managers, faculty Deans and research project leaders at all 35 higher edu- cation institutions, who gave generously of their time and insights, in a highly pressurised context. The report is dedicated to their commitment and passion. Second are all the expert consultants who contributed to inform our understanding: • of the three technology fields – Professor Rob Knutsen, Dr Butana Mboniswa, Dr Bob Day and Tina James; • of the international literature on partnerships and innovation – Dr Ansie Lombard and Professor Johann Mouton; • of current research activity in the three fields – Professor Johann Mouton and his team at the Centre for Research in Science and Technology at the University of Stellenbosch, Melt Van Schoor and Nelius Boshoff; • of current institutional research profiles – the Human Sciences Research Council team of Salim Akoojee, Ansie Lombard, Moeketsi Letseka. Third are the researchers who conducted site visits and compiled richly detailed reports on partnership at each institution – Matthew Smith, Trish Gibbon, Ansie Lombard, Moeketsi Letseka, Salim Akoojee, Candice Harrison, Lesley Powell, Tracy Bailey, Carmel Marock, Neetha Ravjee, Tembile Kulati, George Subotzky, Paul Lundall, Carel Garisch and Gabriel Cele. Fourth are the colleagues in the research programme on Human Resources Development and the HSRC Press at the Human Sciences Research Council, who provided intellectual, moral and practical support to enhance this book. Professor Eddie Webster of the Sociology of Work programme at the University of the Witwatersrand acted as critical reader, contributing to deepen the thrust of the argument presented. Finally, the study would not have been possible without the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, particularly in the persons of Courtenay Sprague and Narciso Matos. This publication was made possible (in part) by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the author. ix Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Abbreviations ARC Agricultural Research Commission BRIC Biotechnology Regional Innovation Centre CENIS Centre for Inter-Disciplinary Studies (now CREST) CREST Centre for Research in Science and Technology (formerly CENIS) CSIR Council for Scientific Research CTP Committee of Technikon Principals DACST Departments of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology DoE Department of Education DST Department of Science and Technology DTI Department of Trade and Industry GTZ German Agency for Technical Cooperation HSRC Human Sciences Research Council ICT Information and Communication Technology IDRC International Development Research Centre MRC Medical Research Council NACI National Advisory Council on Innovation NRF National Research Foundation OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development R&D Research and development SANBI South African Bioinformatics Institute SAPSE South African Post-Secondary Education SAUVCA South African Universities Vice Chancellor’s Association SMME Small, medium and micro enterprises TESP Tertiary Education Support Programme THRIP Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme UNESCO United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation USPTO United States Patent Office WORKING PARTNERSHIPS: FINANCIAL OR INTELLECTUAL IMPERATIVES x Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za [...]... training and personnel links, and regeneration Howells, Nedeva and Georghiou (1998) noted a growth in the scale, number and variety of linkages between higher education and industry in the UK They distinguished three main types of relationship: in the context of research (direct or mediated); in the process of teaching and training (postgraduate students, short courses and continuing education) ; and. .. science and technology in general, and higher education specifically, to facilitate international competitiveness Thus, in 1980, the Bayh-Dole Act was passed to facilitate and incentivise higher education research in the service of industry, resulting in an increase in the number of patents, corporate sponsorship of research, and commercial partnerships Bozeman (2000) points to the long dominance of... was to develop an understanding of the way in which research is conceived of and prioritised in the institution in general and in relation to partnerships with industry specifically A description of the internal and external interface structures established by each institution to support research in general, and specifically, external research partnerships (particularly with industry) , was a second... schemes such as the Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme (THRIP) and the Innovation Fund An HSRC (2003) audit of the beneficiaries, functioning and products and outcomes of THRIP and Innovation Fund projects in three hightechnology fields found that these partnerships have resulted in tangible benefits, with significant advantages to both industry and higher education ‘Partnership’ is...CHAPTER ONE Mapping industry partnerships across the higher education sector The aim of mapping partnerships Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Higher education, innovation and development in global context The higher education sector in South Africa currently faces myriad challenges, with potentially conflicting demands pressing from multiple directions This is not a... triangulating data gathered from a range of empirical sources at different levels within institutions, using diverse methods: • On the scale of researchers and partnerships in each of the three highend technology fields, within each institution, and across the higher education sector; • On the nature of partnerships evident within the institution, within each of the three fields and within cutting edge... to steer the economy in its chosen direction, of ‘knowledge-intensive, valueadding and employment-generating production’ (DTI 2002: 28) These fundamentals include investment in research and development, innovation and the assimilation of new technologies Technology achievement problems – summed up in the notion of an innovation chasm’ between local industry, local research and international technology... distinct higher education institutions Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Outline of this book The starting point for analysis was thus to examine the forms of partnership and the facilitating and constraining forces at the institutions that do have activity in the three high technology fields, the focus of Chapters Two, Three and Four Chapter Two describes all forms of partnership with industry in. .. analysis of an innovation chasm’ in South Africa The present study was motivated by the observation that there is a strong imperative to develop partnerships between industry and higher education, but we do not know the extent to which higher education institutions are responding And given the differential history and capacity of higher education institutions, one may expect that not all institutions... industry and higher education institutions evident across the higher education landscape, as a first step in opening up the field empirically and conceptually We have a knowledge gap about partnerships in South Africa, in the face of a general agreement that they are a desirable social and economic ‘good’ The research reported in this book explored the ways in which the vision of higher education s role in . 176 6 Innovation, partnerships and higher education 189 A national system of innovation? 190 Understanding partnerships within institutions 199 Facilitating. empirical study will be disseminated in a separate title in the series, Working Partnerships in Higher Education, Industry and Innovation. Component One was