Funding central research

As global competition intensifies and the proprietary age ends for once-dom inant companies, these organizations are seeking ways to better couple rese arch to development and business groups. As a result, the funding of centra l research organisations has come under increasing scrutiny. There are seve ral different approaches-from central funding to tying a large portion of t he research budget to business division contracts. The success of each mode l depends less on the model itself and more on the supporting programs and policies that are put in place on the supporting programs and policies that are put in place around it-and on constant evaluation of research practice s. Hewlett-Packard, IBM, NEC, and Siemens illustrate three distinct approac hes to supporting central research.