The Research challenge – Academic view

1. The Research challenge – Academic view Prof. Terje K. Lien, NTNU CRI NORMAN Advisory Board meeting 12. October 2012

2. Let us start academic • Research (According to the Random House Dictionary of the English Language):Diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc. • Diligent and systematic: That is an attentive, persistent and thorough, detailed and complete. It means we shall not make shortcuts or guesstimates, but investigate as much as possible around a specific theme. • Discover or revise: When something is discovered or revised, it should also be made known to others who would want to or need to know. For a university that normally means the general public

3. Doing research with industrial partners • Very rewarding! • Brings us out of the academic “Ivory tower” and out in the real world • Gives the opportunity to gain insight in the status of a specific knowledge area as it is in the real application environment. • Gives feedback useful for further research and education

4. Visiting to learn Seeing the result of collaborative research

5. How universities are evaluated • On the quality and amount of education • The courses must be relevant and up to date in content • The courses offered must be attractive to the students • On the quality of the research • The number of publications in peer reviewed journals and international conferences • The number of citations from these publications • Participation in international collaborative research • And what does not count: • Industrial installations that are directly or indirectly the result of the research and education unless it is described in some publication as indicated above.

6. How we see the industry’s requirements for research • It must be relevant for the products and production methods for the branch of industry in question • It should lead to new insight and knowledge that is useful for industry • If the result is patentable, then very nice. It can be described in publications after patent applications have been filed. • If the result is not patentable, but new knowledge that can improve a process, then the industry often is very restrictive in allowing publication

7. Some main types of Norwegian research in technological areas SFF Center for research excellence SFI Center for research based innovation KMB Competence building research programs with user influence BIA End user driven research projects Application, development Basic research

8. The real challenge in NORMAN • Finding the research questions that are in the areas of real research, and not merely reporting on other researchers’ findings to Norwegian industry. • Creating results that are useful for industry, and at the same time meriting for NTNU and SINTEF • If we succeed in this, it will help to lift NTNU in the international ranking of universities • A higher academic quality for NTNU and SINTEF will also be beneficial for Norwegian industry by providing candidates with better qualifications and research results of higher quality.

9. Concluding remark • My hope is that the industrial partners of NORMAN will support all efforts to increase the academic quality and measurable results in NORMAN so that NORMAN really contributes positively both to the industry and to the academic partners