R & D coordination in industry and university

The high rate of growth of R & D expenditures, the enlargement of R & D organizations, and the increasing specialization of scientists bring with them the danger of disintegration. This concerns industrial research as well as university research. Whilst the coupling of people, programs and objectives in industrial R & D has been necessitated by economic pressure, the use of adequate management techniques in university research has been retarded. A new policy of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, that promotes interdisciplinary research at German universities, focuses on the question of how to coordinate research work. After an analysis of the main problems of R & D coordination in universities, some cases are described.