Scientific consultancy

Scientific consultancy applied to the electrical and electronics industry invokes academic skills over a wide range of disciplines. These skills need to be complemented by others involved in project preparation and in project management. The limits of design are frequently set by the properties of available materials or combination of materials, with the result that a large part of scientific consultancy is materials-related in some way. Staff expertise profiles need to be carefully supervised and modified by appropriate recruitment policies and comprehensive training schemes to keep abreast of a rapidly changing technological scene. The intellectual capital of the consultancy must be maintained at a high level, and, to ensure this, the ratio of skill-enhancing to skill-depleting activity must be maximised. Short-term work, although frequency quite lucrative, is on the whole a skill-depleting activity and ways must be found to engage in longer-term investigational activity. Consultancy related to a basic problem which is common to the activities of several clients, usually involves long-term skill-enhancing research and development. Consultancy can operate quite successfully with a management structure based on a division/project matrix. Examples of typical consultancy projects indicate the wide range of problems arising in the electrical and electronics industries.