Our aim is to provide the focus, the infrastructure, and the essential scientific and technological facilities so that partner corporations, SPQRD scientists and engineers are able to take a global lead in innovation for the foreseeable future. The How and Why Corporations need access to basic research. Lacking in-house facilities, many companies funded university research. But over the last two decades, universities have increasingly retained the results of their research, licensing to all comers or spun-off private ventures. The result has been corporations funding the research that forms the basis for new competitors. Outsourcing leads to a decline in core competencies and in some cases has also led to the creation of new competitors. The most reasonable approach is to diversify research into a broad range of areas with many opportunities for cross-discipline collaboration. Such an approach is considerably more expensive than most firms are willing, or able, to bear. SPQRD gives partner corporations a means to fund this approach in a cost effective way while giving them greater access and control of the research results.