According to NSF, the atmosphere for industrial research is beginning to recover after declining every year since 2001. Between 2001 and 2004, industry-supported university R&D decreased by about $100 million, to $2.1 billion, only to rebound 7.7 percent in 2005, the NSF reports.

There are several reasons for this uncertainty. An alarming number of highly prominent and visible industrial leaders are citing that negotiations over sponsored project agreements and disagreements over the treatment of intellectual property (IP) are negatively affecting the entire industry-university research partnership in the United States. Some companies claim that these issues are forcing them to sponsor research projects at foreign institutions. In addition, the type of research that companies support has been changing. During the last 10 years, companies have been directing more university research dollars toward university research in biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technologies and, recently, alternative energy. Less support is being spent on research in the physical sciences (except biological sciences), manufacturing, design and infrastructure.

While the overall uncertainty may be problematic to some, the data does show that industrial support has become more concentrated in fewer institutions. Between 1993 and 2004, the total number of institutions receiving more than 10 percent of their funds from industry has declined from 179 to 101.
During this same period of uncertainty, Ohio State’s College of Engineering has held its own, increasing its industrial R&D funding by 3 percent from 2001 to 2004 and by more than 20 percent from 2001 to 2006. There are three main reasons for this increase:

1. The College of Engineering has developed a number of strong relationships with national and multinational corporations.
2. The college has aggressively established active industrial consortia.
3. The college has been able to capitalize on the rich industrial and manufacturing heritage of Ohio and the surrounding states. In fact, Ohio State is ranked third among all universities and colleges in industry-financed research expenditures for fiscal year 2005. A large portion of that research is conducted in the College of Engineering.

In order to maintain our national dominance in industrial research, the College of Engineering will work with the university and our industrial partners to develop innovative IP strategies, graduate student and faculty corporate internships, and long-term collaborative corporate research partnerships.