Strategic Research Partnerships: Constructing Policy-Relevant Indicators

Absent a set of indicators based on a set of valid constructs, it will remain difficult to determine the importance of strategic research partnerships (SRP) for the U.S. economy and the enterprise of science and technology in general. The purpose of this paper is to identify characteristics of a desirable policy indicator for strategic research partnerships. In choosing among the many possible conceptualizations and indicators of SRP, a framing question should be: “what is the public stake?” The fact that SRP activity has great economic import (still an open question) does not imply an equivalent government or public policy importance. This seems to imply, then, that SRP indicators should focus on such factors as the composition of R&;D (e.g. do they shift the balance in available public domain research?), impacts of labor and human resources, tax implications (e.g. use of tax credits, foregone revenue and its impacts), and, especially, public-private partnerships (e.g. how are government-sponsored or -brokered SRPs different from others?).