THE CENTER FOR ADVANCED STUDIES - A MODEL FOR APPLIED-RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

The Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) is an applied research centre fo rmed in 1990 within the IBM Toronto Software Solutions Laboratory. Its primary aim is to facilitate the transfer of research ideas into the various product groups of the laboratory. Although we are still learni ng how to make CAS operate more effectively, and it is too early to as sess its long-term success, the model for CAS has proved to be workabl e. The primary partners, namely the IBM Toronto Software Solutions Lab oratory, the IBM research community, universities in North America, an d government agencies that support collaborative research, have found it a viable approach. As an overview, this essay provides some backgro und to the formation of the centre, describes some of the challenges d eemed important in defining the role of the centre, identifies a numbe r of principles that are used to guide its formation and current opera tion, and reports on its progress. We conclude with a discussion of so me lessons learned in the operation of the centre to date and identify future activities and directions for the centre.