CUMIRP

Research Center Sustainability and Survival: Case Studies of Fidelity, Reinvention and Leadership of Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers

Denis Gray, Lou Tornatzky, Lindsey McGowen

Final Report

The Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) program was designed to enhance the US’s research, education and technology transfer infrastructure by promoting stronger technical and organizational ties between university and industry. Evaluation efforts undertaken during the I/UCRCs thirty-plus years of operation have provided persuasive and methodologically robust evidence that it has been achieving these objectives. However, like other federal S&T programs, little has been known about the extent to which the I/UCRC program achieved another important program objective. the establishment of long-term partnerships that were self-sustaining.

Building on archival data collected as part of the ongoing I/UCRC evaluation effort and new interviews with key informants involved in the transition from a government-funded program to self-sustainability, we developed a collection of case studies that attempted to highlight both the factors that influenced survival and the different post-NSF paths to Center sustainability that different Centers could take. 

Four case studies highlight how, with effective leadership, Centers can not only navigate these and other challenges to sustainability but in some cases reinvent the I/UCRC model so it was better suited to unique local needs and circumstances. Chapter 3, Reinventing the I/UCRC Model, tells the story of the Center for University of Massachusetts/Industry Research on Polymers (CUMIRP) and how it developed a hybrid center model. 

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