ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSITY - INDUSTRY COLLABORATIONS IN DEFENSE INDUSTRY: THE CASE OF METU-ASELSAN R&D COLLABORATIONS

Date

2023-9-05

Author

Akman, Necla Seyhan

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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The main purpose of this study is to analyze university-industry collaborations in defense industry based on the case of METU – ASELSAN R&D collaborations. This qualitative study contributes to the literature, especially with the way it addresses the subject. This study, led by professionals with both academia and industry backgrounds, brings together the perspectives of both parties in university-industry collaboration in a single study. ASELSAN is Turkey’s largest defense contractor and leading R&D spender, while METU is among Turkey’s top research universities. This study focuses on contract R&D projects and thesis studies conducted by ASELSAN engineers at METU in order to explore their perceptions, motivations, as well as the challenges they encounter and suggest solutions to the all parties participated to the collaboration, which are university, industry, and government. In this regard, 41 online interviews were conducted with the participants of selected collaborative projects and technology transfer professionals from METU and ASELSAN. The results indicate that both university and industry perceive each other as important contributors to their works. Interestingly, while industry thinks that research outputs coming from university are contribute to their products and systems, academicians have doubts about direct contribution of research outputs to final products. When it comes to problems arise during collaboration, both sides hold each other responsible. The most frequently mentioned barriers are differences between goals and expectations, conflicts at IPR sharing and bureaucratic burdens in collaboration process. In light of the findings, strategic partnership model is suggested, with a number of policy and strategy recommendations.

Subject Keywords

R&D, Innovation, University-Industry Collaboration, Technology Transfer, IP Sharing

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/105445

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis