INDUSTRY-UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS WORK - Science|Business

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MAKING INDUSTRY-UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS WORK

Lessons from successful collaborations

This report was commissioned by the Science|Business Innovation Board AISBL. The Board is a Belgian not-for-profit scientific association that performs original policy research, engages with policymakers and the press, and works generally to improve the climate for innovation in Europe. Its members include Science|Business, ESADE Business School, INSEAD, Microsoft, BP, SKF, Foley & Lardner LLP, Aalto University and Imperial College London. Further information, including other innovation-policy research, is at .

The Science|Business authors Gail Edmondson Editorial Director Lori Valigra Contributing Editor Michael Kenward Editor at Large Richard L Hudson CEO & Editor Haydn Belfield Researcher Design: Peter Koekoek

? 2012 Science|Business Innovation Board AISBL The views expressed here are of the authors, and do not necessarily represent those of the Board or the Board's members.

ABSTRACT

Universities and industry have been collaborating for over a century, but the rise of a global knowledge economy has intensified the need for strategic partnerships that go beyond the traditional funding of discrete research projects. World-class research universities are at the forefront of pioneering such partnerships. They are designed to run longer, invest more, look farther ahead and hone the competitiveness of companies, universities and regions. In short, they transform the role of the research university for the 21st century, anchoring it as a vital centre of competence to help tackle social challenges and drive economic growth.

But it's a big leap. It requires each side to engage far beyond the conventional exchange of research for funding. When they work well, strategic partnerships merge the discovery-driven culture of the university with the innovation-driven environment of the company. But to make the chemistry work, each side must overcome the cultural and communications divide that tends to impair industryuniversity partnerships of all types and undercut their potential.

This report aims to address the challenge of bridging the industry-university divide by highlighting what makes universities attractive as industry partners, what structures make for excellent partnerships and what approach produces seamless interactions. It builds on a growing pool of academic research about the state of industry-university collaboration and offers concrete lessons and recommendations from experienced managers on both sides of the divide.

The empirical lessons in this research lead to some obvious policy conclusions.

They include:

1. Keep the ship steady. Policymakers need to ensure a predictable, stable environment of funding and regulation for long-term strategic partnerships to thrive.

2. Give universities the autonomy to operate effectively, and form partnerships. The best people to decide a university's strategy are its own board and faculty heads, not government ministries. Without freedom to operate ? with appropriate checks and balances ? they cannot form effective partnerships.

3. Reward activist, collaborative universities ? and encourage more to be that way. Funding incentives work: government policy should reward, or at least not discourage, universities and companies that form strong partnerships. New government programmes, such as proposed by the EU and some national governments, should entice others to take the same step.

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4. Help universities strive for excellence. Companies want to work with the best ? and so Europe must take care always to feed and promote its best universities, in order that more job-creating partnerships can be formed.

The report was commissioned by the Science|Business Innovation Board AISBL, a not-for-profit scientific association create to improve the climate for innovation and Europe. The case studies of innovative and successful partnerships featured

were recommended by members of the Board, among other experts. The authors would like to thank the Board members, company executives and academics for their contributions to this report.

The board is grateful to Androulla Vassiliou, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Sport, Media and Youth, for her encouragement and comments on this research.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. OVERVIEW Key Lessons

CASE STUDIES II. Partnerships that impact teaching and learning Case 1: Microsoft-Cisco-Intel-University of Melbourne Case 2: Aalto University: International Design Business Management Programme Case 3: BP's Energy Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley Case 4: Audi's Ingolstadt Institute of TU Munich

III. Partnerships that develop new funding streams Case 5: Imperial Innovations

IV. Partnerships that rethink the role of the research university Case 6: University of California Case 7: Karolinska Institutet Case 8: Calit2

V. Partnerships that go strategic Case 9: IBM-ETH Zurich Case 10: SKF-Imperial College London Case 11: IBM-Imperial College London Case 12: GE Global Research Munich Case 13: Siemens-TU Berlin, MIT Case 14: Nokia-Aalto University, UC Berkeley

VI. RECOMMENDATIONS

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