<div class="htmlview paragraph">As never before, National and International competition demand ever faster and more accurate development of new products. At the same time corporate downsizings have stripped many R&amp;D budgets to the bone. In this environment it is necessary for product designers to look at new and sometimes uncommon partners in the process of developing new products. Government and University partnerships designed to assist in researching and developing new products are available and more user friendly then ever before. Increasingly government labs are becoming a source of new product research and it is industry pressure that in part determines the direction of that research. If your industry is not working with government and university researchers then your industry is not going to benefit from the results of research conducted.</div>