Governance Evolution in University-Industry Collaborative R D Programs

Large R D programs benefit significantly from effective governance structures. Governance provides a program and its project teams with strategic direction. It also offers an opportunity to monitor progress and achieve planned benefits. Governance provides project teams with authority and responsibility for managing quality, risk, and financial accountability. Collaborative programs involving multiple organisations have specific governance challenges, mainly when stakeholders include university and industry collaborators with different cultures and expectations regarding project benefits. This chapter presents insights into the roles and responsibilities of governance for a sizeable university-industry collaboration R D program. The chapter focuses on the evolution of governance structure across three key phases of its life cycle. It explores how the guiding principles of good governance can be used to build trust among different collaborators. It then presents the evolution of three important governance aspects: context, configurations, and mechanisms. The chapter concludes with a key governance process in university-industry collaborative R D the benefits management.