Abstract

In some areas of industrial research, there is an increasing trend towards outsourcing research and development tasks. The present study asked about the scope and significance of this trend. For this purpose, internet research, interviews and workshops were used to examine the relevant "pioneering industries" of automotive engineering, information technology and especially biotech/pharmaceuticals as examples. The study looked at what kind of R&D tasks are (or can be) outsourced, what technology and infrastructure play a role in this and what opportunities and risks are associated with this for the "clients", for the "R&D providers" and for the German "innovation system" in general. It became apparent that R&D outsourcing is definitely a trend - but not a homogeneous one: there are differences between sectors, differences between large and small companies, differences between companies that are far removed from research and those that are research-oriented. Nevertheless, a set of initial recommendations for action could be formulated a) on the outsourcing of R&D in the narrower sense, b) on research-related networking of SMEs and c) on cooperation with science. The future perspective of "outsourcing R&D through problem-solving exchanges and the tendering of prizes?" was also examined in greater depth. Surprising conclusion: R&D competitions hold interesting potential in this respect, but their use is limited to either rather small problems or to "very large", visionary tasks.

Authors