Real estate consultant Karen Backus, who specializes in working with universities and non-profits, presented members of the Work Team with 12 unsuccessful cases of co-development out of 15 projects on which her firm has consulted at a teach-in at Harvard Business School earlier this month.

Since co-development could indicate either a purely financial collaboration between a real estate developer and an institution or an intellectual union—a pharmaceutical firm and a university lab, for example—University administrators stress the importance of identifying synergies between Harvard and any potential partner.

Private firms may want to jump on any opportunities more aggressively than can a large university with a myriad stakeholders. Even when working with firms with similar goals, fostering scientific collaboration, as history shows, requires more than physically bringing together top researchers.

“A major concern in the sciences is that Harvard scientists and private sector scientists who eventually cohabitate a neighborhood might never see or talk to each other,” University Provost Steven E. Hyman says.

For instance, the opening of the Merck research facility near Harvard Medical School has generated “little enrichment of the local intellectual environment,” a University official says—the opposite of what Harvard would hope to achieve.

The few successful collaborations have generally involved a university project that generates steady profits, such as housing or retail, according to Backus. Building a project around a more nebulous theme like biotech, though, tends to be more difficult to implement.

But even success stories can harbor cautionary tales.

MIT’s University Park, developed in conjunction with the City of Cambridge and real estate developer Forest City Enterprises, won an urban design award for a project that integrates science facilities, housing, and green space.

But it took over two decades to complete the project, says urban design advisor Gayle B. Farris, and neither Forest City nor MIT would be inclined to arrange a similar agreement.

“That tells you how challenging it is to do this,” Farris says.

IF YOU SEE THE SCIENCE COMPLEX, SAY HELLO

While co-development may allow the construction of the Science Complex to progress beyond its currently paved-over foundation, there are no guarantees that the project will follow original plans to house stem cell researchers, Lapp says.

“We are making sure that we accommodate [the Stem Cell Institute’s] needs, we want the research to continue and grow,” says Lapp. “But keep in mind, the whole Allston vision, the whole Allston plan is a long-term plan, so there’s going to be growth in a variety of research areas—whether it’s stem cells or something else—that will have to be accommodated.”

Bringing in a new partner means that Harvard would need to integrate the goals of another institution with its own, and while the University has not yet proposed any specific partnerships, potential compromises are on the table.

“[Harvard] understands that with working partners, some level of control needs to be minimized or shared,” Work Team Co-Chair Alex Krieger says.