The Opportunities and Challenges of Implementing Public-Private Partnerships: Lessons Learned.

There is discussion in Congress and elsewhere to establish within NOAA an Office of Commercial Data Acquisitions, as a seventh Line Office. This possibility brings forward considerations of Public–Private Partnerships and perhaps an even more venturesome partnership: Public-Private-Academic Partnerships, and hence the importance of this Session and the questions: Why are they important and why should you care?

As a preface to Public-Private-Academic Partnerships, it seems wise to examine some of the experiences to date of Public-Private Partnerships. Although the modern history of Public–Private Partnerships is far shorter and more compressed than that of other, more traditional project financing and project delivery systems, it is rich enough that we can draw some conclusions that can be instructive for the future. This paper examines a portion of this history with a focus upon lessons learned both within the US and abroad—particularly in the United Kingdom, Canada. and Australia. It concludes with a mapping of these lessons to the environment of Public-Private-Academic Partnerships.