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Businesses and Universities must collaborate, say experts

An event in Durham has united representatives from business and academia, in a bid to foster collaboration to drive UK innovation and growth.*

Traditionally there has been a disconnect between universities and the needs of the business community, but in the past decade both have realised the benefits of working together to benefit the economy as a whole.

At the ‘Meet the North East Universities - Commercialising University IP and Services’ event, organised by the Electronics Technology Network, speakers discussed the opportunities and challenges facing both parties, as well as the benefits of collaborative working methods.

The event was held at Durham University, and Dr Tim Hammond, director of Business and Innovation Services believes that the event signals a shift towards a joined up way of working.

Dr Hammond said: “I think it gives us a great opportunity to bring people together to get the dialogue going between industry and universities.

“There is significant potential to improve idea transfer from the university and also to take business needs and use them to support real commercial needs.”

One of the speakers, Arnab Basu, CEO of Kromek Ltd focussed on the importance of the innovation cycle, and the part that Universities can play in creating knowledge which can eventually be commercialised into wealth generating ideas.

He commented: “Motivations for businesses and universities are different, and fundamentally we want our universities to excel in research and do the blue sky thinking, bring in new technologies and carry out research, whereas businesses are focussed on bringing shareholder value, creating wealth and jobs. And they are not often very compatible.

“However, there is a growing realisation that where industry needs to be over the next 10-20 years is to be in a competitive position, and to build a sustainable economy the interaction between businesses and academia is going to be more and more important.”

John McClane head of engineering at Selex Galileo Edinburgh echoed his sentiments, and as a leader in the aerospace and defence supplier of electro-radar and electro-optic system to an international marketplace hopes that getting closer to universities will facilitate the pull-through of the latest technologies into their product base.

“It’s absolutely vital for the UK PLC in particular, but I think for business in general to have the closest possible synergistic relationship with universities,” said John.

“Our classic model in the past has been to look for people - intellectual property transfer through the people we recruit, and in the last 10 years we have realised that this model needs to be significantly augmented by sponsored research that meets the needs of our business for the future.”

For universities, cohesive working practices allow them to showcase their potential, as well as creating significant opportunities for graduates. David Donkin, University of Sunderland Assistant Director for Innovation and Employer engagement believes events like this can allow universities to ensure that students are equipped with the necessary skills for the workplace.

“I’m learning every day that industry wants universities to come out and tell them what their genuine capabilities are so they can help business, and I think we need to take every opportunity to tell them the kind of things that we can do, and start conversations that will hopefully lead to long-standing collaborations,” said David.

“We want to make sure that those students who come to university to develop a career in business know what business wants from them, and if there are any gaps, we as a university want to know what we can do to help that.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .