E-Research Collaboration in Academia and Industry

E-Collaboration has come of age in the last decade, with industry and academia using the latest web-based collaborative software to bring together groups of workers to work on common tasks. Research is a $370 billion industry in the United States and is conducted in every sector of the economy. It has collaboration at its core. Most innovations result from collaborative efforts between groups of workers who are often geographically dispersed. Academic leaders now seek the synergies that result from collaboration between their research faculty and others. Web 2.0-based research portals have emerged that allow knowledge sharing and lowering of social barriers between researchers. Another important development is cloud computing, which has dramatically reduced computing costs for organizations. These tools allow researchers in both industry and academia to extend their range and reach, gain synergies between dispersed groups, and increase research efficiency and effectiveness. This paper examines the use of e-research collaboration tools in industry and academia. It describes a framework that matches an organization's e-research collaboration needs to e-research collaboration solutions across several critical dimensions. The proposed framework will help to improve the understanding of available options for e-collaboration infrastructures, particularly in the sub-area of e-research. It will also help to identify the fit between these infrastructures and organizational e-research collaboration needs.