The good deal: in a world where collaborations between higher education and industry draw criticism, how is it that Marco and Berkeley's Gigascale Center thrive? - Research & Business

University Business, Oct, 2002 by David L. Kirp, Elizabeth Popp Berman

The greatest strength of the Gigascale approach, according to Gray, has less to do with who pays for the research, than with the high-voltage community of learning that has been created. The Center gets researchers from many universities "out of their silos" and working together. Those who planned the Center are betting that this extraordinary commitment to collaboration will encourage an intellectual liveliness that characterizes academic life at its best--that this is the best way to achieve the "moon shot" they are hoping for. If they're right, they'll fulfill Rich Newton's dream to "maximize impact on the world."

David Kirp is professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley. A longer version of this article will appear in his book, Higher Education Goes to Market, which will be published by Harvard University Press next year. Elizabeth Popp Berman is a Ph.D. candidate in the Berkeley Sociology department.