When officials from Bayer Environmental Science and North Carolina State University discuss the winding path both took to the formation of the collaborative Plant Health Initiative, there are plenty of smiles and chuckles when revisiting the many trials and tribulations they encountered along the way.
Although working relationships between industry and higher education are not new, at least in the world of golf course management, this particular relationship is different. It's much more involved, much deeper, much more intimate. And because of that, the initial negotiations were somewhat tricky, with plenty of hand-wringing over issues like intellectual property — in essence, who owns what information and when do they own it — and publishing rights to research results — in essence, who gets credit in the research stories you read in GCM.
They all laugh now, but it's clear those issues and many more were not laughing matters as the partnership was being forged. But if the initial results of the partnership, some of which were revealed during day one of Bayer's Plant Health Symposium, are any indication, all of those hours huddled around a conference table hammering out an agreement were worth it.