Fostering interaction between industry and academic and government laboratories is widely seen as an important means of facilitating growth and innovation in the technology-based industries. This book investigates the research links and knowledge flows between industrial and public sector research in three new and promising fields of advanced technology — biotechnology, engineering ceramics, and parallel computing. Differences between these fields suggest that policies to promote public-private research links should be more effectively targeted. Similarities highlight the general importance to innovation of frontier research in universities, and the need to encourage informal interaction between industrial and public sector researchers.