Businesses and universities should benchmark their knowledge of specific technology fields much more frequently - how far have you got, how far are we? -, the fact being, in the words of Thales top executive Dick Arnold, that in certain disciplines industries are far ahead of the academic world.   Dick Arnold: "... testing nonexistent products in a nonexistent environment..." Mr Arnold mans the "Technology Xchange Cell" of multinational Thales' Hengelo branch (formerly Hollandse Signaalapparaten) at the UT. Up to two days a week Mr Arnold holds office in the Noordhorst, near the UT's Virtual Reality (VR) Laboratory, which in the first shared benchmark projects of the UT and Thales will play a prominent part. Mr Arnold has set his sights quite high: in its mature form, the Xchange Cell must be accessible for the entire UT, for all disciplines, for regional, national and international enterprises and institutions, which will help putting each other on the right track of application-oriented research and of innovative product development right from the start.....>>>more (Dutch version)