The Engineering Research Center (ERC) program, institutional partnership among industry, university and government, was initiated by Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) in Korea in 1989. Its goal is to enhance the nation's industrial competitiveness and to prepare engineering graduates to possess the skill needed by industry. There has been increasing expectation that the ERC will enhance the R ＆ D capability of Korea.
But we have limited knowledge of the way how to manage the ERC effectively. So the major barriers of the effective management of the ERC were analyzed in this thesis with some evidences gotten from interviews with some directors of centers. In the past years, the ERC program exhibited positive potential. Yet there were also many difficulties in the management. The research findings are as follows;
1) With repect to the internal characteristics of centers, there are difficulties in hiring competent researchers to increase the research capability, communication and integration among members for synergy effect, evaluating the result of research and supporting members.
2) The major barriers in fostering center-industry linkage formation are the industry distrust of the universities' research capability, research period preferred between them, the lack of R ＆ D capability in industry and the gap of technology level between them.
3) not only the faculty of the ERC but the members in charge of the operation of the ERC program at KOSEF are not experienced. And they have not directed the faculty of the ERC satisfactorily with the guidelines for the management.
Following these findings, this thesis makes several suggestions for the effective management of the ERC in Korea. But these findings and suggestions should be taken with caution since this study has limitation in the size of data. Further studies can be made in the evaluation of the effectiveness of the ERC program and comparative analysis between success and failure centers.
