Abstract: The innovation consortium is gathering a strong synergy of scientific and technological innovation with a cross-border collaborative innovation model. This paper adopts an exploratory multi-case study method, taking the typical cases of industry-university-research consortiums in developed countries/organizations such as United States (US),the European Union, and Japan as the research object. By combing the management system and operation mechanism of six industry-university-research consortiums (US Industries of the Future Institutes, US Manufacturing Innovation Center, Netherlands Asmael Company, Belgium Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, Japan National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and Japan VLSI Project),this paper summarizes the common characteristics of the development of industry-university-research consortiums in developed countries/organizations, and excavates the beneficial enlightenment for promoting the establishment of innovation consortiums in China. The analysis shows that developed countries/organizations such as US, the European Union, and Japan have formulated a series of key innovation measures mainly in government active layout, organizational governance, funding guarantee, and talent training. The main enlightenment and suggestions for the practice of forming innovation consortiums in China include: government departments should become “active layouters”;explore the formation model of physical innovation consortium; a stable and diversified funding guarantee mechanism ;explore the mechanism of talent training and exchange and sharing.

Key words: Industry-University-Research Consortium; Typical Cases; Innovation Consortiums; Management System; Operation Mechanism