University-Industry-Government Partnership model integrated into Regional Economic Development framework for research universities in the Mid-Atlantic.

1. Connecting VirginiaTech to Industry
and Government to Promote
Regional Economic Development
University Industry Government Partnerships
Joseph Curtis MS, PhD, PMP
Strategic Concepts, LLC

2. The Greater Washington Initiative:
A Regional Innovation Cluster
• The Greater Washington Initiative sets the stage for the creation of a regional innovation cluster.
• The Economic Development Administration defines RICs are geographically-bounded, active
network of similar, synergistic or complementary organizations which leverage their region’s unique
competitive strengths to create jobs and broader prosperity
• VirginiaTech’s significant asset base within the NCR is well positioned to contribute to the success
of the region by influencing government, industry and national competitiveness.

3. • The obvious strategy for VirginiaTech is to establish university-industry-government partnerships
that result in the creation of new products and services that enhance the regions economy and
support national competitiveness. But first we need to understand how corporate innovation.

4. Competitive Advantage Quickly Disappears
Project Product
Ideation Commercialization
Selection Development
• Companies are forced to produce a constant stream of innovations to remain
competitive in the marketplace
• R&D teams must move through the innovation process with increasing velocity

5. From Closed Innovation to Open Innovation
• Centralized R&D is replaced by open innovation structures
• Open innovation is motivated by increasing demand for innovation, driven by the
emergence of new groups of customers, often with new requirements, increasing
competition and shorter product lifecycles.

6. Creating Value From Open Innovation
• VirginiaTech can create value for its industry and government partners by aligning its marketing efforts to
design programs that synergize with each companies culture of innovation and market priorities.
• The nature of innovation is also changing, with convergence between technologies, increased
multidisciplinary, higher risks and costs, and new sources of science and technology in emerging
economies.
• In this context, companies want faster and more efficient innovation, which can access external knowledge
and draw on a wider pool of ideas than their companies alone can offer.
• They want to spread costs and risks, work with other companies where skills are complementary, and
emerge with greater flexibility and shorter innovation loops.

7. University Industry Partnership
Prigge Process Model

8. Aligning VirginiaTech’s Research Infrastructure
Partnerships Within The Washington Initiative

9. Best Practices
Industry- University Collaboration
1. Define the projects strategic context as part of the selection process
– Define specific collaboration outputs that can provide value to the company
2. Select boundary-spanning project managers with three key attributes:
– In-depth knowledge of the technology needs in the field
– The inclination to network across functional and organizational boundaries
– The ability to make connections between research and opportunities for product apps
3. Share with the university team the vision of how the collaboration can
help the company
– Select researchers who will understand the company practices and technology goals
4. Invest in long-term relationships
– Plan multi-year collaboration time frames and target university researchers
5. Establish strong communication linkage with the university team
6. Build broad awareness of the project within the company
– Provide feedback to the university team on project alignment with company needs
7. Support the work internally both during the contract and after, until the
research can be exploited Pertuze et.al. Sloan Mgm. Rev. 51:4, 2010
– Provide internal support for technical and managerial oversight

10. Strategic Alliance Program

11. Strategic Alliance Program Overview
• Founded in 2011, the Strategic Alliance Program (SAP) provides its member
companies with convenient access to the expertise and resources of
VirginiaTech as well as to comprehensive information on the full range of
research and educational activities at VirginiaTech.
• Through its various services, the SAP will become an organized and
mutually beneficial communications link between the faculty and staff at
the Institute and the research, management, and operational activities of
more than 1000 diverse research-oriented industrial organizations
participating in the Washington Initiative.
• With the active assistance and cooperation of the faculty, staff, and
administration, the SAP provides its services to participating members for
an annual fee. Net income from these fees is a major source of unrestricted
income for the Virginia Tech Ballston Center.
• Best practices for industry-university collaboration will be used to assist the
faculty and staff to enable companies to achieve competitive impact from
their collaborations with VirginiaTech.

12. Strategic Alliance Program
Incentivizing Faculty & Staff Participation
• In 2012, the SAP will introduce a Revenue Sharing Plan under which
10 percent of the gross revenue received each year is distributed at
year's end among VirginiaTech’s faculty and staff who participate in
the following activities of the SAP:
– Informal research meetings on matters of mutual interest with scientists and managers
from member companies, both on campus and at company locations.
– A yearly series of formal symposia and seminars on topics of current interest in science,
engineering, and management. These meetings feature presentations by faculty and
staff and are held on campus, as well as at company sites, particularly at the facilities of
the Virginia Tech Ballston Center.
– The SAP encourages faculty and research staff to submit copies of preprints and working
papers as well as laboratory technical reports. These documents are digitized in PDF
format and downloadable by SAP member companies. Papers of special interest to
industry will be listed in the SAP edition of VirginiaTech’s Reserch Magazine, an
electronic monthly providing news on VirginiaTech research, reports on the impacts of
emerging technologies, and special insights and announcements for SAP members.
– To help organize and make this information readily available, the Strategic Alliance
Program maintains an extensive KnowledgeBase of faculty interests and expertise,
research projects and associated publications, as well as listings of multi-sponsored
programs at the Virginia Tech Ballston Center.

13. Measuring Program Success
• VirginiaTech is a research and
technology intensive university
and provides a variety of
potential interactions with
industry and government
• Measuring success will be based
upon the scope of the
interaction and the strategic
intent of the partnership
• Several measures could be proposed that allow program improvements and
objective evaluation:
 Economic impact on regional economy
 Company participation in executive and workforce development programs
 Student participation in problem-solving
 Consortia formation (% of Vtech faculty participating, facility utilization)
 Sponsored research funding
 Length of collaboration

14. Discussion
Usability?
Capturing Ideas Customer Problems Feature priorities? Readiness? Marketing and
and Opportunities Trends of Interest Value questions? Messages? Sales Programs?
Company Strategy
Project Launch End
Fuzzy Front End Fuzzy Front End of Life
Pre-development Development Commercialization
Research technique must reflect innovation stage
Joseph Curtis MS, PhD, PMP
Phone: 202-360-1252
Email: jcbioteck@yahoo.com