The contribution of this paper is a description of a process to determine partnership needs between FloridaÕs aviation/aerospace industry and university and community college educational system. This process was developed to produce an educational success plan which address two questions: How can the stateÕs education system bring the most value to the aviation/aerospace industry? and How can the aviation/aerospace industry bring the most value to the stateÕs education system? To answer these questions we first define the cyclic nature of the benefits from an industry-education partnership. Second, we define three partnership components: education, research, and technical assistance. Third, a research process to identify partnership needs is described. The process includes face-to-face interviews; a detailed, quantitative, industry survey; and a qualitative survey of researchers. Fourth, lessons learned from developing and applying this research process are given
