RSPhysSE targets links with industry By Damon Shorter One of the ANU's founding institutions, the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering (RSPhysSE), has responded to the squeeze on research funds by creating a position to pursue links with industry and government. Professor Jim Williams, formerly head of the school's Electronic Materials Engineering Department, has been made Associate Director (Resources) for six months from September 1. "It has become impossible for the school to survive and maintain the high quality and diversity of its research programs solely with internal funding," he explained. To raise the money necessary to sustain and expand the school's basic research programs, Prof Williams will pursue opportunities to contract out the expertise and facilities of RSPhysSE to industry. For instance, negotiations are under way with a Sydney-based company that pays about $500,000 a year to have its industrial materials analysed for trace impurities. A large share of this work, done off-shore, could be performed here, Prof Williams said. Another potentially lucrative earner is technical staff training. Prof Williams said multinational companies, especially technology companies expanding into south-east Asia, pay up to $100,000 a year to train individual staff in the use of high-tech equipment used at the school. "To a large extent, these countries aren't aware that we have such advanced facilities and expertise and send their staff to be trained in the US or Europe," Prof Williams said. Prof Williams will lobby the Federal Government for increased incentives for industry investment in research, including favourable tax concessions. "If the government is really serious about linking research to industry then it must look at strengthening opportunities for university-industry interaction," he said. Despite his belief that the current economic climate is forcing universities to become more financially accountable, Prof Williams warns chasing the industry dollar often occurs at the expense of long-term research. "There is a question of how far we are prepared to go this way. We have to remember that the prime reason for us being here is to do cutting-edge basic research."