Pros
UTRC offers a very wide variety of technical project options to work on; The technical & engineering staff is extraordinary, and among the best in the world; UTRC offers an excellent vantage point into all UTC businesses, and is great place to learn about UTC; The Employee Scholar Program used to be the best in class...now, it's only slightly better than peer companies.
Cons
The organization lacks any serious leverage with the business units and constantly struggles with sustaining long term research vision. Programs are started and stopped on short notice in response to funding surges and cut-backs from the BUs. Maximum visibility of funding is 1year for any program; "5-year" roadmaps are annually created...and re-edited. While some process discipline is necessary in any organization, UTRC has taken it to a level that appears to be counter-productive to the "research & innovation" theme. Everything is so rigidly structured that lateral thinking and risk taking happen more as anomalies.