Industry Academic Partnership Opportunities
By Jim Lenihan, President, Gemco Valve
Excerpted from Powder/Bulk Solids – June, 2014
Theoretical to practical application cooperative efforts between universities and businesses of all types is certainly not a new concept. In the late 20th century, pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms began working closely with universities. Successful, forward-thinking companies like Genentech could offer researchers from universities access to resources and funds. At the same time, academic scientists could test wide ranging research data by applying it to the practical development of real goods and technologies. Even better, students have the opportunity actually experience an industry while working on a related university degree.
However, collaboration between industry and the academic community came to the forefront during the throes of the economic downturn. Although unions had long existed, as budgets became more constrained during the recent recession, and funding for research and development diminished, and in some cases disappeared altogether, industry-academic partnerships (IAPs) presented an attractive opportunity. Together these collaborations strategically solved problems, developed innovative products, and created a workforce pipeline that benefited both participating businesses and university graduates.
While funding and government support lagged in the U.S., industry-academic partnerships took root in Europe and the UK. Cooperative associations like those between University of Huddersfield-West Yorkshire, England and AstraZeneca, Audi and the Technical University of Munich, and Microsoft-Cisco-Intel and the University of Melbourne began to flourish—bringing new and better products to market. U.S.-based companies like Lilly and Pfizer developed virtual and face-to-face global collaborations with university scientists and students.
Another result of successful IAPs was the formation of administrative bodies around the world, whose entire focus was on curating opportunities for collaboration and leveraging the long-term partnership potential between industry and academia. Please click here for the remainder of the article.
