Technovation 28 (2008) 291–297 Beyond the stars: The impact of affiliation with university biotechnology centers on the industrial involvement of university scientists P. Craig Boardman à Science and Technology Policy Institute, 1899 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Ste 520, Washington, DC 20006, USA Abstract Most study of university–industry interactions in biotechnology emphasizes the productivity (e.g., patents, spin-off firms) of a relative few number of ‘‘star’’ university scientists. This study uses a national survey of university scientists to assess the industry involvement of university scientists who affiliate with university research centers focused on biotechnology. The results demonstrate such affiliation to correlate positively with informal interactions with industry, such as knowledge exchange, but not with reports of the production of economic and bibliometric outputs. Implications for policy and centers programs are discussed. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: University research centers; Biotechnology; University–industry interactions 1. Introduction In a 1984 issue of Science, an article entitled ‘‘Unusual Partners Launch a Biotechnology Venture’’ (Marjorie, 1984) reported on the establishment of the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology, a university-based research organization dedicated to basic science in bio- technology that operates still today. The partners include the University of Maryland, the National Institutes of Health, and several private biotechnology firms. Two decades ago, this tripartite union was deemed ‘‘unusual’’ because rare for the times were collaborative research centers that were university-based, multi-discipline, and especially multi-sector. Such centers, in fact, did not become commonplace until after the advent and eventual successes of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Centers Program in 1985. 1 Today, however, this type of integrated research approach is frequently the starting point for policy makers looking to solve large-scale science and technology problems, parti- cularly for biotech. It should be no surprise that the field of biotechnology was a forerunner in the establishment of ‘‘multi-purpose and multi-discipline’’ university research centers, organized research units which bring together scientists and engineers from industry and universities and sometimes from federal laboratories to work at the frontiers of, and in the case of biotech the convergence of, engineering and basic science. By definition, biotech is knowledge intensive and the complementary processes of discovery and innovation necessitate the union of assets that naturally characterize different types of organizations, public and private (Feldman, 2002). There has been no shortage of study of these comple- mentarities. Hagedoorn (1993) demonstrates that from 1980 to 1988 the biotechnology field generated significantly more research alliances than did any other field of research; Fisher (1996), moreover, identifies for the period from 1988 to 1996 the establishment of more than 20,000 small firm biotech research alliances, with a growth rate in such alliances of 25 percent per annum. However, despite the indispensable role that universities play in biotech research and development (Murray, 2002; Feldman, 2002; McMillan et al., 2000), relative few studies assess the multiple effects of universities’ and university scientists’ ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/technovation 0166-4972/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.technovation.2007.06.001 à Tel.: +1 404 274 2125. E-mail address: pboardma@ida.org 1 Bozeman and Boardman (2003) contrast ‘‘multi-purpose multi- discipline university research centers’’ with the traditional university research center and academic departments, which tend to be more disciplinary and single-problem focused.