As the fight against terrorism takes central stage in a new paradigm of conflict, there needs to be a careful re-assessment of how an effective division of effort between universities, national laboratories, defence, commercial industry and the military can be developed to deal with critical new challenges. What, for instance, are the real incentives for government, the science and technology community and private industry to co-operate, more than these different actors have in the past? How can these incentives be harmonised with dramatically differing strategic objectives for each of them? How can any disincentives be overcome when there is a change in strategy?