On locating research

After the identification of various research functions has been achieved, two related questions need to be answered: Should all functions be performed at the same location or not, and where should this happen? When industrial research was first started, the answers were relatively simple. All research activities were concentrated at one location, the choice of which depended very heavily on the mission of the research department. When the primary mission was to support technological decisions of top management, research was made a headquarters unit. When the function also included supporting development, which was typically located close to the main manufacturing operations, research was in turn located close to development. As the headquarters was very often located where major manufacturing occurred, research was here again close to the headquarters. If the mission stressed heavily the absorption of general scientific developments or ‘freewheeling’ creativity, research was located close to major universities or in other possibly creativity-enhancing areas. This could result in a belt of similar institutions around a core institution. The times when location decisions appeared that simple are long gone. Apart from a national location decision, in which the aspects of distance discussed above come into play, international research-location decisions are gaining in importance at present.