This paper analyses the provisions for union recognition contained in the British Employment Relations Bill in the light of problems with the system in operation in the 1970s and with its US counterpart. First, it establishes that these problems may be attributable largely to defects in design rather than fundamental¯aws, and that this is demonstrated by the relative success of the Canadian system.

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This paper uses a survey of 130 public laboratories in France to investigate collaborative activities of laboratories with industry. Our statistical analysis shows that knowledge and technology development and transfer occurs most frequently through collaborative and contract research, informal exchanges, conferences, and consortia. The main benefits from the perspective of laboratories are the tangible and intangible inputs received-funds, materials, research suggestions and data. The outputs of collaboration are most often theses and publications along with technological artefacts (new products & processes, software) while patents, licenses and copyrights are less frequent. Collaboration with industry leads laboratories to conduct research in a more timely and reliable way, as well as focused in more applied areas.

This study has been prepared within the UNU-WIDER project 'Southern Africa-Towards inclusive economic development (SA-TIED)'.

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