ABSTRACT
Academic research is done mostly in small groups at universities and institutes. Until the final product (the thesis, the paper) is sent out, any interaction with other colleagues on the subject of research is done purely on a voluntary basis. Apart from his/her personal scientific curiosity and drive, the external interests of each of the researchers are also obvious, i.e., personal advancement and recognition, or the next research grant. (At least it was so before the epidemic of “start-up” ventures.)
Applied R&D toward a new industrial process is very different, as the timely contribution of many professional specialties is essential and critical to its success (after the first inventive steps). In many cases, this interaction is not well understood by some professionals coming from academic research and this has often been a major source of problems. Therefore, it is important to discuss this “fact-of-life” in detail in this chapter, together with the essential resources needed for the process development, up to the decision to build a new plant.
