One of the biggest problems in the cooperation between universities and companies is a mutual ignorance of their needs and concerns, and the tendency to have different interests and objectives. According to IBM, it is very important to acquire knowledge from the academic world at a fair price. Otherwise the institution may well feel it is being exploited and reject collaborations. On the other hand, it is also vital to highlight the risk assumed by Companies when working independently to bring the results of research to the market. In order to be as equitable as possible it is therefore crucial to conduct a thorough analysis of risks, costs and the likelihood of the project’s success. We propose that ideally, equal partnerships should be encouraged, whereby both parties share costs, risks, skills, and the ownership of any results which are obtained.

IMEC (Belgium)

IMEC is a publicly run Belgian scientific institution specialising in Nanoelectronics. Its collaboration strategy with businesses is quite clear and explicit and states that absolutely everything is shared with industry partners, from the talent, risk, costs and benefits of intellectual property and results, to research and production. In this way, both companies and research groups are involved in the whole project, with companies regularly visiting the laboratories to participate in research, and vice versa, thereby achieving high levels of interaction of personnel.

Agents required for implementation

This recommendation can be jointly implemented by Companies and Universities.

View explanatory caption

1. Benchmarking contract research organisations. A comparative analysis between CSIRO- Australia, DPI- Holland, Fraunhofer- Germany, IMEC- Belgium, Joanneum Research- Austria. SINTEF- Norway, TNO- Holland, VTT- Finland.
2. http://www2.imec.be/be_en/home.html. - IMEC: Interuniversity MicroElectronics Center. Collaboration Programmes for I&D: "IMEC Industrial Affiliation Programme".