FENSTER, Saul K.
President, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, New Jersey 07102-1982, U.S.A., Telephone: 973.596.3101, Fax: 973.624.2541, fenster@admin.njit.edu
Abstract: New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is a research university offering baccalaureate, masters, and Ph.D. degrees in engineering, architecture, management, computer science, mathematics, applied sciences, and related areas of public policy. The university operates on the principle that partnerships among institutions of higher learning, industry, and government are essential to the conduct of all three sectors within the context of the contemporary economic environment. Four distinct types of partnerships are discussed.
Keywords: partnership, research and development, economic growth, industry, government
Since its founding in 1881 New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has undergone two fundamental transformations of institutional mission and identity. During the initial period of its history, it evolved from a local technical school into an undergraduate engineering college serving a widening geographical constituency. That remained the institution’s essential mission until the early 1970’s when it embarked on extensive changes through which NJIT has evolved into one of New Jersey’s three public research universities with a statewide mission and an extensive array of professional program offerings.
Today, NJIT is dedicated to a four-fold mission of instruction, research, public service, and economic development. NJIT enrolls over 8,000 students and annually awards approximately 1,400 degrees from the baccalaureate through the Ph.D. in an array of engineering and technology disciplines, computer and information science, architecture, management, mathematics, applied sciences, and related areas of public policy. NJIT’s research initiatives include manufacturing systems, infrastructure, information and telecommunications technologies, materials science, environmental engineering and science, microelectronics, polymers, architecture and building science, and management. Among the nation’s technological universities, NJIT’s rate of growth in research ranks among the top ten. NJIT has one of the most computing-intensive campuses in America.
NJIT operates on the general principle that partnerships among institutions of higher learning, industry, and government are essential to the conduct of all three sectors within the context of the contemporary economic environment. The mutual benefits to be derived from such forms of collaboration are many, ranging from joint research projects, to exchanges of unbiased technical information and personnel, to sharing of resources and equipment and, most importantly, to the preparation for leadership of the professionals who are needed to support the growth of technology-based state and national economies.
The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980’s marked the onset of a period of instability and rapid shifts in global geopolitics, the end of which is not in sight. A new level of global economic competition has replaced military confrontation as the predominant form of international competition, bringing with it the imperative for new thinking and new organizational pressures on business enterprises. The result has been a world-wide reconfiguration of commerce and industry in the form of corporate mergers and acquisitions, downsizing and out-sourcing of certain functions, the creation of new jobs, and a rapid introduction of new technologies.
Higher education now finds itself subject to the healthy challenge of competition from new sources that are often nimbler in taking advantage of the potential power of new technologies in reaching the marketplace: proprietary institutions, corporate education and training centers, and the large new telecommunications/entertainment corporations emerging from the consolidation of those industries. The Internet itself, and the distance learning modalities that make use of its power, represent a serious challenge to institutions that limit themselves to more traditional modes of instruction.
The challenges presented by these dramatic changes in the economic and higher education environments have led to a raising of NJIT’s sights. As the millennium approaches, the institution’s transformation from an engineering college to a research university with a core focus on technology is essentially complete, and we are ready to move to a new level of leadership.
NJIT’s mission retains the three elements common to most American research universities: instruction, research, and public service. Several years ago, NJIT added "economic development" as a fourth element of its mission, integrally related to its educational, research, and service functions.
Why did NJIT choose to place the university’s role in economic development in such a prominent and visible position, and to assert unequivocally that it is central to what the institution is about?
The decision was based on the premise that two principles of political philosophy will shape national economic policy and related legislation in the current environment and for the foreseeable future. First, economic development is best accomplished by the private sector. Second, the role of government should be to provide an economic and regulatory environment conducive to the success of private enterprise. If the premise is correct, and if the goal of enhancing competitiveness and technological leadership is to be achieved, colleges and universities should view themselves, and should be viewed by others, as essential partners of the business community.
Higher education plays several key roles that support economic competitiveness and growth. Colleges and universities prepare a work-force with the knowledge and skills needed to compete in a global economy that capitalizes market change and effects technological change with unprecedented speed, as well as preparing citizens to participate fully in the civic and cultural life of their society. In addition, higher education provides essential support to the private sector through scientific discoveries, the application of these discoveries to myriad and often serendipitous commercial uses, and the transfer of technology and human capital to business enterprises. By producing new knowledge, university-based research is a generator of employment, income, and -- sometimes -- entirely new industries and new technologies.
Thus, higher education and business are natural partners in the process of economic development. The synergies are readily evident, for example, in New Jersey. The state has an extensive industrial research and development base and the nation's highest concentration of scientists and engineers. It is home to research-driven corporations of world stature in the pharmaceutical, communications, and computer industries. Within this context, the combined intellect of university faculty and students and industry researchers is a powerful source of creative ideas that can lead to new products and processes.
Moreover, partnerships with industry and government in pursuit of economic development have the potential to develop into a significant source of revenues needed for investment in faculty and capital resources, and to contain the rate of increase in tuition and fees. The growth of externally-supported research at NJIT over the past two decades has been robust. The half-million dollar research expenditure level of the ’70’s has blossomed into $40 million today.
NJIT also serves as a site for business "incubators," hatching new enterprises and hastening the exploitation of university-based inventions and patents through the development of commercially marketable products. The university has agreements with major corporations that support undergraduate and graduate education and faculty research initiatives. As a result of these activities, NJIT has become a partner of both government and industry.
NJIT is not oblivious to the challenges inherent in developing intimate relationships with entities whose central purposes are different from those of an educational institution. But the university is confident that it can maintain its independence if its partnerships are carefully structured and nurtured.
1. The Joint Thailand/New Jersey Applied Environmental Technology Development and Transfer Center
Over the course of the past two decades, NJIT has entered into more than 40 agreements of mutual understanding with universities in 19 nations on 4 continents. Not all of these arrangements have been successful in fostering the kinds of mutually beneficial cooperation originally envisioned. Some turned out to be little more than diplomatic trophies without substantive follow-up or long-term results. Others resulted in activities that lasted for a brief time, and then died out. In each case, however, we have learned something from the experience. Fundamentally, we have concluded that the quality of our international relationships is far more important than the number of relationships into which we enter.
I will therefore concentrate on a single exemplary case: NJIT’s multi-dimensional academic, industrial, and governmental relationships in Thailand. At present, this is a highly successful and active set of projects. Much of what we have learned from our prior international agreements is embodied in our Thailand connection. Furthermore, elements of our activities in Thailand are derived from the three models that I will describe below. Each of these three models was conceived as a domestic program, but as you will see, they can readily be extended on an international scale. The Joint Thailand/New Jersey Applied Environmental Technology Development and Transfer Center is itself an international extension of one of these models.
In May 1997, the Thai ambassador to the United States and New Jersey’s Commissioner of Environmental Protection signed a memorandum of agreement that established the joint Center for Environmental Technology Transfer and Development (CETTAD), based in Thailand with satellite operations in New Jersey. The mission of the Center is to serve as the mechanism for collaboration among industry, university, and government to advance environmental and energy management and to enhance environmental and energy technology. The Center is accomplishing this mission by providing the training, education, technology transfer, joint research and development, demonstration of advanced technologies, and system engineering support required by expanding environmental and energy programs in both Thailand and New Jersey. Of course, motivating the specific projects pursued by the Center is the underlying objective of building economic activity through advancement of environmental technology and through environmentally sustainable manufacturing activity.
The parties chiefly responsible for carrying out the mission of the CETTAD are New Jersey Institute of Technology on the American side and the Pollution Control Department of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment on the Thai side. An International Advisory Board comprised of the Center’s member organizations provides guidance, management direction, oversight, identification of expertise, and a forum for the development of additional partnerships.
In just two years we can already see tangible results from the collaboration. Among the activities currently in progress are the following:
As a result of the relationships we have developed, NJIT is now providing technical assistance to Thai industry and government in pollution prevention, wastewater treatment, and soil and groundwater remediation. In addition, we are providing support for ten Thai students to enroll in Ph.D. programs at NJIT, and university faculty are serving as consultants to the Thai Ministry of University Affairs on quality and accountability in higher education.
It is clear that the care with which the Thailand/New Jersey collaboration was designed, and the resources invested in the project, are bearing fruit in many ways that include, but go far beyond, traditional models of faculty and student exchange programs. Success can be attributed in large measure to the leadership and active involvement of key individuals from government and industry as well the academic world from the very outset.
2. The NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC)
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is well known as a catalyst for change in the United States. For example, it has been a powerful force in promoting reform and modernization of university curricula and K-12 educational programs in science, mathematics, and engineering. The NSF has also exerted a strong influence by promoting industry/academic cooperation in the form of partnerships intended to improve the performance capacity of U.S. industrial enterprise and strengthen the research and development function of U.S. universities.
One of the mechanisms for doing this is the "Industry/University Cooperative Research Center" program featuring interdisciplinary research directed toward meeting industry’s needs, strong collective industrial support of university research and participation in its planning, and direct transfer of university-developed ideas and technology to U.S. industry to enhance its competitive posture in world markets. With industrial and other support totaling roughly 15 times the NSF’s investment, the I/UCRC’s are an excellent example of the power of "leveraged" funding by a governmental agency.
NJIT has successfully competed for NSF funding to establish a number of centers under this program. As required by the NSF guidelines, the university must demonstrate that it will work in partnership with a critical mass of participating companies in an area of mutual industrial interest, and the participating companies pay a fee to help defray operating costs. NJIT has entered into such partnerships with multiple other universities and large corporations for the collaborative pursuit of research interests that results in exchanges of expertise and resources.
A good example is the Hazardous Substance Management Research Center (HSMRC) headquartered at NJIT, the largest university-based waste management research program in the U.S. Founded in 1984 with support from the NSF, the Center has developed into a consortium of six research universities: NJIT, Princeton University, Tufts University, Rutgers University, Stevens Institute of Technology, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Through its multi-faceted collaborations with industrial enterprises, the Center has contributed to advanced engineering management of hazardous substances, development of new management technologies, and testing and evaluation of existing technologies to assess their operating ranges and performance capabilities. Researchers are developing an ever more comprehensive data base to identify effective, environmentally safe, and economically viable hazardous waste treatment and remediation technologies that assist industry and facilitate technology transfer between industry, government, academia, and the public. The HSMRC operates through seven divisions that address incineration, biological and chemical treatment, physical treatment, site characterization and monitoring, site remediation, health effects, and public policy and education.
The connection between this Center and NJIT’s contributions to the Thailand/New Jersey collaboration is clear. In addition, however, the model is being extended to other international collaborations. With assistance from NJIT and NSF, two I/UCRC’s have been established in addition to those based in the United States, one in Northern Ireland and one in France. The Queen’s University Environmental Science and Technology Research Centre (QUESTR) located in Belfast, and the Reseau Cooperatif de Recherche sur les Dechets (RE.CO.R.D.) located at the Institut National de Science Applique in Lyon, both are supported by government funding and industrial memberships. For almost a decade, NJIT has conducted joint collaborative research with these centers, with support from each center’s governmental and industrial partners.
3. The New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology
The New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology (NJCST) is a local extension of the NSF model, and also has potential for replication in other countries. Dating back to the 1980’s, the NJCST was created to promote collaboration between and among the research and development enterprises of private industry and the research universities within the State of New Jersey. As in the case of NSF, the principles of leveraged governmental funding and partnerships between and among corporations and universities are essential in this model. The Commission’s literature asserts that "collaborative programs which take advantage of multi-institutional skills and resources are most likely to maximize economic benefits to the state."
Through the NJCST, government provides partial support for research and development enterprises in fields of science and technology that the State identifies as strategic to the future economic growth and health of New Jersey. Universities compete for support by submitting proposals that are subject to peer review. One of the essential criteria used in judging proposals is evidence of partnerships with other universities and private industry. In addition, the NJCST has several other mechanisms for funding technology transfer between universities and private industry.
The NJCST-funded university/industry R&D Excellence Centers play a special role in stimulating discoveries that can lead to new products, facilitating the creation of start-up companies, generating spin-off companies, helping established companies stay competitive, generating the basis for new commercial applications, and developing a leadership position for critical New Jersey industries including advanced materials, telecommunications, agricultural biotechnology, environmental protection, medical biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and plastics.
Examples of NJCST research and development centers at NJIT include:
4. The University Economic Development Center
NJIT has a long history of assisting small businesses and encouraging business growth in the City of Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, and one in need of robust economic development and job creation. The university’s most important contribution to small or large businesses is human resource development. In addition, NJIT can provide the latest technical information and advice, in effect transferring technology and knowledge from academe to the workplace. A recent Coopers & Lybrand study found that fast-growth companies with linkages to universities have a productivity rate almost two-thirds higher than their peers without such connections.
With partial support from the state government and a private foundation, the university in 1988 started providing physical space for start-up business enterprises in high-technology fields in a facility we call the "Enterprise Development Center." This kind of facility is often referred to as a "business incubator" because it is intended to provide an environment that nurtures embryonic business ventures and maximizes their chances of survival.
The entrepreneurs who start such businesses choose to locate in the EDC because of its close proximity to the campus, providing convenient access to the university’s faculty, students, and facilities. Once the enterprise is in a position to raise substantial capital, or to manufacture and sell a product, it may relocate to its own facilities. In the future, such ventures may choose to move to R&D facilities currently being planned in Newark’s University Heights Science Park, itself a collaborative development effort involving NJIT, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Rutgers University, the private sector, and various levels of government. In addition, several affiliated organizations (the Polymer Processing Institute, the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program, the New Jersey Technical Assistance Program for Industrial Pollution Prevention, and the Defense Procurement Technical Assistance Center), partially funded by state or federal government, NJIT, and industry provide technical, financial, and business guidance, information and assistance to numerous industries, with a particular emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises.
Today, NJIT’s EDC is the oldest and largest business incubator in New Jersey. With a total of 80,000 sq. ft. of office and laboratory space in two buildings, EDC currently houses 38 businesses, contributing 227 jobs in Newark. Since its inception, 25 companies have "graduated" to independent status, with only one subsequent business failure. Industries represented by current tenants include software, telecommunications, engineered products and services, electronics, chemistry, biomaterials, healthcare, sensor technology, and environmental products.
I must emphasize that we are talking here about very small businesses, typically an individual entrepreneur employing no more than one or two others. One of this year’s graduates, J-Star Research, started in 1996 with two employees occupying 1,000 square feet of space. The firm has just moved to a new 10,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility with 9 employees, still not a huge business, but on its way to significant growth. Another example is a company called New Jersey Precision Technology, founded in 1994 by a single person who happened to be an NJIT alumnus in Engineering Technology. The firm now employs 20 people, occupies 3,000 square feet of space, and owns high-tech machining equipment valued at more than $3 million.
The formation of research and economic development partnerships, whatever their specific structure, has the potential for significant benefits for all participants. When these partnerships are well-designed and substantive, linear relationships are transformed into a seamless web of interrelationships, with all participants --- businesses, universities, and governments --- contributing and benefiting directly. Undergraduate students get hands-on experience of the work environment and the work agenda as an integral part of their education and, as a result, increase their marketability. Graduate students have the opportunity to participate directly in research and development programs that relate to their academic programs and often derive material for their dissertations and ultimate completion of their degrees. Employers gain direct access to a wide range of faculty expertise and to sophisticated and costly laboratory equipment. Faculty members learn about the latest research and development interests of industrial enterprises and techniques used by their industrial counterparts. Government officials and policy-makers have access to sound technical analysis of complex problems that affect the lives of all citizens (particularly in the areas of science, technology, and the environment), and receive advice that is free of political considerations. Universities benefit from the opportunity to attract and retain excellent faculty, who themselves gain recognition in the science and industrial communities.
I would like to conclude with a thought on motive.
Why do universities engage in the forms of collaboration described in this paper? It is certainly not because they are profitable from a financial perspective. In virtually every case, the university’s operating costs and the amounts of university funds spent to meet matching requirements exceed the revenue derived from government and corporate grants and contracts. Nor is it because they provide a quick and easy means of winning recognition. On the contrary, successful collaborative ventures usually require more time and effort than the self-contained programs we traditionally offer. Why, then, do we continue to develop such programs, and why are we so enthusiastic about them?
I believe the answer is self-evident. Universities exist to provide the best education they can for future generations. University collaborations with industry and government, both domestic and international, though costly, have the effect of significantly improving the quality of the education we provide. To be sure, there are other benefits, as I have outlined above. At bottom, however, is the fact that our students and faculty benefit from an enrichment of their teaching, learning, and inquiry that would not be possible in the absence of a cross-fertilization process stimulated by working in partnerships with others. For this reason, we shall continue to nurture our existing partnerships and develop new ones.