A technology transfer model for industry-university-government partnerships

The Colorado Institute of Artifical Intelligence (CIAI) is a progressive university/industry consortium based on the premise that innovation can be conducted by individuals working in the absence of large research and development institutions. CIAI focuses the resources of each project on an individual graduate student, an individual principal investigator, and an individual employee of a collaborating company. The Institute has established several measures of effectiveness, including the amount of follow-on funding to grants and the number of Colorado graduates hired by CIAI member businesses. From these measures and from continuous surveying of CIAI members, results have been gleaned that would apply to consortia patterned on the CIAI model, including the value of member participation, the appropriate level of industry investment, a need for balance between basic research and applications, attributes of an appropriate technology focus of the consortium, and the importance of the State as a primary player in the consortium's activities and direction.<>