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The Nsf Engineering Research Centers And The University-Industry Research Revolution, Barry Bozeman, Craig Boardman

Craig Boardman

The NSF engineering research centers (ERC) program served notice of a sea change in university research funding and institutional designs, representing a transition from department-based, principle investigator-oriented university science to a new center-based model encouraging universities to work with industry and to work beyond the strictures of academic disciplines. In our view, the past three decades of U.S. science and technology policy have not seen an institutional change of greater importance. This paper begins with a brief history of the ERC program, including discussion of the programs origins, goals and research foci, growth, and influence as a model for other …