Supporting collaboration between universities and business is something that I’ve touched upon numerous times over the past few years, and the benefits of enhancing that pipeline from lab to market are clear for all to see. Despite concerted efforts to bolster that pipeline, a recent report from the European Commission highlights the work that still needs to be done.
The report repeats the notion that collaboration between universities and businesses are largely beneficial for all parties, but businesses are especially beginning to realize the benefits from working with universities as part of their innovation and talent development work.
There remain clear challenges to overcome however, not least in raising business collaboration as a priority for academics, many of whom still do not work with businesses. Indeed, despite high profile European schemes, such as Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+, many businesses are still largely unaware of either the possibilities for collaborating with universities, or the potential benefits they could derive from doing so.
The biggest barrier to collaboration, at least from the academics point of view, appears to be bureaucracy and a lack of time. By contrast, businesses cite cultural differences, especially in areas such as time management as a key barrier.
The authors believe however that whilst identifying barriers is important, the key to making collaboration more frequent is to understand what drives collaboration at the moment, and supporting that process.
“Study results show that removal of barriers does not necessarily trigger collaboration,” the authors say. “Instead, if there are sufficient drivers for cooperation, collaborators will find a way to cooperate.”
Driving collaboration
These drivers vary depending upon the particular stakeholder involved. For academics, the primary driver is to benefit their research. For university managers the driver tends to be more to support the employability of graduates or to access new funding. Businesses meanwhile, collaborate because they have clear outcomes in terms of innovation that they want to see achieved.
The data suggests that once there is an initial collaboration, then the two parties tend to cooperate consistently from then on across multiple levels. Indeed, when collaboration occurs between specific individuals within the university or business, those people are often firm advocates of the process and recommend it to their peers.
Despite the relatively low levels of collaboration to date, the authors nonetheless believe that collaboration between universities and businesses can be hugely beneficial, not just to the direct stakeholders, but also to society more broadly.
“The potential exists for universities to act as an ‘anchor tenant’ on which their cities and regions can build competitiveness upon,” the authors conclude. “In this scenario, the campus acts as a platform or hub, a modern collaborative precinct, which brings together excellence in higher education and business.”
The report contains a number of case studies of successful collaboration, so if it’s a topic that interests you, it’s worth checking out.
