A GUIDE

TO A
A SUCCESSFUL
INDUSTRY-ACADEMIA
COLLABORATION

Key challenges – where do they come

from and how to tackle

www.hublinked.eu

@hublinkedka

@hub_linked

@hub_linked
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

CONTENTS
Introduction 3
Research methodology 4
What will this report tell you 4

OUR SAMPLES Our samples 5

The interviews 5
The survey 6
Expertise/specialisation of survey participants 8

THE IMPORTANCE The importance & benefits of University-Industry collaborations (UIC) 10

& BENEFITS OF
UIC
The perceivedimportance of UIC in general for companies 10
COLLABORATIONS Benefits of UIC 11

HOW IS UIC How is UIC supported 12

SUPPORTED
Government support for UIC 12
EU support for UIC 12

COLLABORATIONS Collaborations 13
Who do you collaborate with? 14
Education 15
Research and development activities 16
Commercialisation and value creation 17
Staff professional development 19
Working time spent in UIC activities 20

RELATIONSHIPS Relationships 21
How are partners chosen 22
Who initiates contact 22
Mantaining the collaboration 23
Define a successful collaboration 24

RECOMMENDATIONS Recommendations 25
Barriers in collaborations 26
Enabling factors 28
Future directions/emerging trends 30

GOOD PRACTICES & Good practices & guidelines 32

GUIDELINES
Good practice guide for industry and HEIs 32
Practices that apply to both Academia and Industry 34
11 Factors and personal skills necessary for successful collaborations 35

HubLinked: Partners and contacts 36

 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

INTRODUCTION

There is new research coming out every year on the importance and the outcomes of university - industry collaborations (UIC). In
the current social and economic climate higher education institutions (HEIs) and industry are put under various kinds of strains. That
is especially true for the technology sector and more specifically the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
Advances in technology swiftly transform and disrupt modern business environments which in turn affects companies, product life
cycles, services and creates a constant need for newer and better expertise. For HEIs, the economic burdens along with the need for
funding and remaining competitive in their scientific field make working with industry an essential and valuable route.

Successful knowledge transfer between centres of ICT expertise and the industries that require it is vital for the EU’s economic
success. Many countries have already formed policies and invest in increasing UIC. Thus, it is of great importance to try and under-
stand the dynamics of University – Industry linkages in the ICT sector. However, there are still very few studies that examine how ICT
Schools collaborate with industry, belonging to various sectors, and how that is done effectively.
As a research project HubLinked’s goal is to strengthen Europe’s software innovation capacity by learning from regions of
proven ICT strength and sharing that knowledge with all regions. This will be achieved via the following actions:

(i) improve the effectiveness of University-Industry (U-I) linkages between computer science faculty and all companies
(ii) develop global software innovators that can work in any sector.
(iii) increase the participation of females in the ICT sector and
(iv) upskill academic and industry staff to engage in U-I linkages for software innovation.

This report focuses on the first item of this list and is part of Hublinked’s Work Package 3. It’s aim has been to determine what works
best when higher education institutions work with industry on software innovation. The range of potential mechanisms for U-I
linkages is extensive and they differ in effectiveness. Many of them are examined in the following pages under different sections.
This report tries to identify the most efficient ways for HEIs and companies to engage in different types of collaborations as well as
identify different needs, obstacles, enablers, preferences and perceptions that CS faculties and industry hold. This research enables
a better understanding of the dynamics of U-I linkages in software innovation and hopefully assists companies of various sizes in all
sectors in accessing software innovation expertise in a cost-effective way.

3
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The current research under Hublinked’s Work Package 3 was divided into 4 parts. The first was about studying the existing literature
on academic – industrial collaborations and try to identify the main themes and the differences between various industry sectors
and ICT. There was no particular study found that examines these types of collaborations relating to ICT and software development.
The next part was to build a questionnaire around the main themes and conduct qualitative interviews in 5 different sites around
Europe. These sites were located in regions of proven ICT strength surrounding 5 of the academic institutions acting as Hublinked
partners. The institutions were:

• Dublin (Ireland) - Technological University Dublin (formerly known as Dublin Institute of Technology)
• Paris (France) – Institut Mines Telecom – Telecom Sud Paris (TSP)
• Oulu (Finland) – University of Applied Sciences (OAMK)
• Stockholm (Sweden) - Mälardalen University (MDH)
• Ljubljana (Slovenia) - University of Ljubljana

The interviews were conducted during a period of about six months. Then they were analysed into themes which were then used
for the third step of the research, creating a statistical survey. In this step, two survey questionnaires were created, one was
addressed to academia and the other to industry. The questionnaires were administered to participants online and the
collected results are presented in this report. The total responses were 195 for both surveys (97 for academics and 98
for industry). The fourth and final step of this research was the creation of this report combining the findings of the
surveys and the interviews and creating a set of recommendations and guidelines for CS faculties and companies to
work together more frequently and more efficiently.

WHAT WILL THIS REPORT TELL YOU

The report is divided in different sections. First we present some basic demographic information about the participants
in the interviews and the surveys. Then we examine the perceived importance and the reported benefits of UIC. Also
in the same section are some of the ways that governments and the EU support academic-industrial linkages. Next
are the different types of collaborations that HEIs and Industry engage in and how often they do so. The section after
that is about one of the most important themes in UIC, relationships. Different factors about choosing the partners,
starting and maintaining the collaborations and defining successful interactions are presented. The following section
is about identifying the barriers and the enablers that inhibit or enhance collaborations. Finally, the last section is the
guidelines on good practices that were identified by experts in industry and academia during the interview phase of
Hublinked.
All the graphic charts presented in this report are about the survey results. Any results based on the interview data are
mentioned as such.

Introduction

4
 OUR SAMPLES
DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

Hublinked’s Work Package 3 (WP3) has had two research

parts. The first part was conducted in 2017 and 2018.

THE INTERVIEWS
Qualitative Data

During this time we conducted 41 interviews with academics working in the scientific field of Computer Science and
people in industry or related types of organisations such as technology transfer institutions, business incubators etc. All
organisations in the “industry” category belonged in technology sectors such as engineering, software development,
telecommunications etc. In the sections that follow the term “university” and “Higher Education Institution” (HEI) are
used interchangeably and refer to any third level institution. In this context “business” and “industry” are also used
interchangeably and refer to private and public organisations.

11 10 9 7 4

Academia
7 3 4 4 1

Organisations active
1 4 0 0 0
between U/I

Industry 3 3 5 3 3

5
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

THE SURVEY
Quantitative Data
The interviews were then analysed and during this phase some important themes emerged. These, along with a few oth-
er themes identified in the literature were put together in the form of two online questionnaires. One questionnaire was
addressed to academics and the other to industry. Both surveys were promoted geographically in Europe and in South Korea
focusing primarily on the Hublinked partners’ countries. For the academic sample, the questionnaires were sent to Higher
Education Institutions (HEI) like Universities, Institutes of Applied Sciences and Technological Institutes with schools in the
fields of Computer science, Informatics, Software engineering, Computer engineering and Networks. The total number of
partecipants in the “Academic” questionnaire was 97 and for the “Industry” questionnaire it was 98.

97 98

The total number of partecipants in the “Academic” questionnaire was 97 and for the “Industry” questionnaire it was 98.
The following demographic information are all about the survey.

Academics Industry
SAMPLE SAMPLE
Gender 97 98

Gender representation in both our samples were very similar. 63% 63% 64%
of our Academic and 64% of our Industry sample were male and
30% of our Academic and 32% of our Industry sample were female.
Another 7% and 5% respectively, preferred not to say. 30% 32%

Years of experience

Academics Industry

Our samples

6
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

Academics Industry
professional experience
compared to 29% who only
had academic experience.

Experiece in both fields 69% of the industry

participants had both
industrial and academic
71% of the Academic
professional experience and
participants had both
31% had only experience in
academic and industrial
industry.

Work years vs years in UIC

Academics Industry
Higher education work years vs years of UIC Industry work years vs years of UIC

Industry - Years of work in Industry vs in Academia

Years of work in Industry and in Academia

Our samples

7
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

EXPERTISE/SPECIALISATION
OF SURVEY PARTICIPANTS

HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTES

For the academic sample, the questionnaires were sent to Higher Education Institutions (HEI) like Universities, Institutes of Applied
Sciences and Technological Institutes with schools in the fields of Computer science, Informatics, Software engineering, Computer
engineering and Networks.

Types of HEIs

47%

Funding

Academic Discipline

Our samples

8
 A Guide
General
to a Successful
Title
Industry-Academia Collaboration

INDUSTRY
For the industrial sample, questionnaires were sent to companies, regardless of size, working either in the IT or in a non-IT sector, to
Campus Innovation Centres, to non-profit organisations (NGOs), and to Knowledge Transfer Organisations.

Size of the organization

Types of non-academic /industry organisations

2%
4%

Size of the organization

Number of employees

Our industry sample was

distributed across different
organisation sizes

Our samples

9
THE IMPORTANCE
& BENEFITS OF
UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY
COLLABORATIONS
(UIC)

THE PERCEIVED IMPORTANCE OF UIC

IN GENERAL FOR COMPANIES
We see below what the perceived importance for UIC is for industry.
It becomes apparent that most participants in our industry sample find U-I collaborations to be an added value.

Perceived importance of UIC for Industry

10
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

BENEFITS OF UIC
Here are the main benefits of academic-industrial collaborations as reported and identified in the interviews conducted dur-
ing the qualitative part of the research.

FOR INDUSTRY FOR HEIS

Companies get competence, direct access to good Funding (EU, Government, Industry and otherwise)
talent and expertise from the graduates they hire.
These graduates will be slowly replacing the older Publications, new collaborations, new projects, new
generation that’s retiring. contacts.

Risk sharing for companies in testing new ideas, Greater employability for their students.
solutions/technologies/processes through publicly-
funded projects. Testing also new technological Industrially relevant academic research which also
equipment used by the HEIs and see if it’s worth benefits the local community.
investing in it.
Universities gain more applied approaches and topics
to research and more relevance to the “real world
The opportunity to use and test Publicity, free
problems” outside of academia.
exposure and recognition.

Better practical/industrial training and employability

They also get more research proposals and
for the students.
participation in more projects the university applies
for, which equals to more research funding form
Access to industry equipment and labs.
various sources like the government and the EU.
Promoting the work that specific academic labs
New knowledge, methods, solutions to industrial
are doing so they can strike more funding and/or
problems, papers, prototypes & proofs of concept,
collaborations with industry.
patents and/or IPs.
Contributing to the socio-economic context of the
The more people that are exposed to research on
country and of Europe.
the industry side, the more people you get that
understand what will happen in the future as well and Promoting awareness of what the university can do for
they can better understand the academic world and companies (exposure).
what they read and write on the technical stuff. They
get a maturity in their organizations. After an industry placement, a student can bring new
techniques and methods drawn from their industrial
Companies get to know the students before hiring experience into the school.
them during their placements.

Regarding new technologies, universities might be

working on cutting edge stuff that companies still don’t
know about. It could really benefit the companies to In our Hublinked research there are many
get a hold of new cutting edge technologies. reported benefits to academia and industry
working together in the field of Informatics and
Influence on the academic curriculum. Computer Science. However, in the following
sections of this report we will examine if they
Access to academic courses from universities. engage in it or not and what drives and inhibits
these collaborations.
Importance
The university can license its IPs to companies, or
companies can buy said IPs from the university.
& Benefits of
UICs

11
 General Title

HOW IS UIC
SUPPORTED
WAYS THAT UIC IS SUPPORTED IN
5 EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES
THROUGH POLICIES

What is reported here are some ways that 5 of the Hublinked

countries’ government policies support UIC. The countries are
namely Sweden, Finland, Ireland, France and Slovenia. The data
were collected during the interview phase of the project.
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR UIC

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR UIC

• Government-established academic institutions supervised by e.g a ministry of industry or similar tasked with supporting
and providing trained professionals to the country’s industry.
• Degrees provided by publicly-funded technological universities/institutions are required by law to be industrially relevant.
• Government providing funding or financial incentives directly or through state funding agencies to academic-industrial
collaborations.
• Government giving funds or tax breaks to companies to invest in or sponsor industrial PhDs.
• State-sponsored technology transfer companies/organizations with their own budget focusing on enhancing academic
research results up to a technology readiness level that can be picked up and be developed by industry.
• State-sponsored research centres that are funded to build academic-industrial research teams that aim at innovation and
value creation for public research.
• Government legislation that regulates and makes the handling of any intellectual property involved in collaborations more
comprehensive.
• Legislation that allows academics to start their own companies and/or do consulting work in industry.

EU SUPPORT FOR UIC

• EU-funded research projects that use as a prerequisite that consortia will have at least one company involved to exploit
the results at the end of the project.

• The EU has funding schemes like the European Regional Development Fund and the Smart Specialisation strategy that can
be used by local governments to enhance technological innovation and research in their region.

12
 COLLABORATIONS
TYPES OF UNIVERSITY – INDUSTRY
COLLABORATIONS

In this section of the report we first examine what are

the main interaction partners of industry and academia
and then we investigate the five main different types of
collaborations as mentioned in research literature.

The five types of U-I collaborations examined are namely:

Education Research and

development
Practices relating to the education of students Collaborative research between HEIs and in-
that contain interactions with industry dustry

Commercialisation Public engagement

Related to creating companies, value, prod- Includes interactions with the community,
ucts, services, licenses, commercial exploita- public promotion of the collaboration etc
tion

Staff professional
development
Lifelong learning of academics and industry
professionals

13
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

WHO DO YOU
COLLABORATE WITH?
First let’s see with whom our industry and our academic samples respectively collaborate with.

HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

HEI Collaborations
The academics in our sample
work primarily (90%) with
companies in the IT sector
followed by collaborations with
university careers/graduate
placement and alumni offices.
What is an interesting finding is
that almost half of them (47%)
work with organisations that aim
to bring industry and academia
together.

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Industry Collaborations
For industry, collaborations
are not focused primarily on
just one type of partner. A
large percentage (55%) of our
sample work specifically with
Computer Science faculties. Half
of the participants also work
with research centres and with
academic faculties other than
Computer Science.

Types of
Collaborations

14
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

EDUCATION
Collaborations relating to the teaching and
educations of students

HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

From the HEIs perspective companies provide primarily the following activities regarding the education of students. The
five most frequent ones have to do with students’ employability. By far the most frequent activity is the hiring of graduate
students. What comes next is companies giving the opportunity to students to do their internships with them and the third
activity is companies providing industry supervision/mentoring to student projects. Industry also attends or even sponsors
exhibitions for student projects and provide career talks directly to the students. Finally, it is interesting to note that indus-
try also works with academic faculties to provide guest lectures to the students and what is more, provide ideas for student
projects.
The companies that collaborate with the faculty provide the following
Graduate recruitment
Work/study programmes (e.g. internships)
Assist in supervising/mentoring student projects
Attend/sponsor student project exhibitions
Provide careers talks directly to students
Provide guest lectures
Provide ideas for student projects
Involve industry in quality assurance of curriculum (e.g. external examiner)
Involve industry in academic advisory boards
Involve industry in curriculum design and review

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
On the industry side, we can see that the collaborations with the university on educational activities are focused on two things
happening more regularly, internships (54%) and graduate recruitment (53%). Both activities closely connected with employa-
bility. Providing career talks to students comes in third place with only 37%. What is surprising is that industry does not appear
to collaborate with HEIs on educational aspects such as attending student project exhibitions (27%) or with being involved in
the design or in the quality assurance of the academic curriculum.

Collaboration beetween I-U for Student Education

Internships
Graduate recruitment
Work/study programmes (e.g. apprenticeships)
Provide careers talks directly to students
Provide guest lectures
Assist in supervising/mentoring student projects
Field trips/visits to company
Attend/sponsor student project exhibitions
Provide ideas for student projects
Involved in academic advisory boards
Provide access to specialist equipment
Types of
Assist in the formal assessment of students Collaborations
Sponsorship of individual students (e.g. fee support)
Involved in curriculum design and review
Sponsor equipment/labs
15 Involved in quality assurance of curriculum (e.g. external examiner)
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

ACTIVITIES

HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

How often faculties work with companies on the following R&D related activities
On nationally funded researc What appears in this chart
projects
is HEIs work regularly with
On EU-funded research projects industry on nationally and
EU-funded projects. What
Contract research projects is surprising is that they
collaborate with companies
Industry provides indirect support
for research (host PhD students, on prototypes, patents,
provide access to equipment etc)
licenses etc not that reg-
Industry provides direct financial ularly.
contribution for research

Industry-sponsored PhD degrees

On R&D outputs (publications,

prototypes, patents, licenses etc)

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

How often companies work with faculties on the following R&D related activities
For industry the main
finding is the same as for Collaboration on nationally
funded research projects
HEIs, collaborating for
nationally and EU-fund- Collaboration on EU-funded
research projects
ed projects. It is also
Collaborate on R&D outputs
interesting to see that in- (publications, prototypes, pat-
ents, licenses etc)
dustry does not regularly
finance research projects Participate in advisory boards
in academia neither Provide indirect support for
sponsor industrial PhDs. research (host PhD students, pro-
vide access to equipment etc)
Provide funding for indus-
try-sponsored PhDs

Contract research projects

Provide direct financial contri-

Types of bution for research
Collaborations

16
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

COMMERCIALISATION AND
VALUE CREATION
Commercialisation is not the biggest type of University-Industry collaborations. HEIs cooperate with industry most frequently
for developing prototypes that can be commercialised. The is also cooperation on technology transfer activities and start-up
creation sometimes but not very often.

However, the image is different on the industry side. Most of the industry sample works with HEIs infrequently on the com-
mercialisation activities examined in this survey. There is only a slight advantage of technology transfer activities happening
more frequently but that is true for less than one third of the responses (28%).

Collaborations related to commercialisations from the Higher Education point of view

Collaborations related to commercialisations from the Higher Education point of view

Types of
Collaborations

17
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

How often do faculties collaborate with companies in respect to public engagement activities

Regarding public
Joint promotion of careers in ICT engagement activities,
HEIs work most often with
Joint organisation of public industry in promoting
conferences and events
careers in ICT and
in organising public
Participation in regional or
sectoral working groups (e.g. conferences and events.
skills development partnerships)

Joint engagement with primary

and second level schools

Participation in regional or
policy development

Participation in Corporate Social

Responsibilty projects with
companies

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

How often do companies collaborate with faculties in respect to

public engagement activities
On the other hand
industry does not appear
to work very often Joint organisation of public
conferences and events
with HEIs on public
engagement activities. Host joint conferences and
events
The most regular activity
seems to be organising Joint promotion of careers in ICT
events and conferences
jointly with the HEIs Participation in regional or
sectoral working groups (e.g.
(35%). skills development partnerships)

Participation in regional or
policy development
Joint engagement with
primary and second level
schools

Types of Participation in Corporate

Social Responsibilty projects
Collaborations with universities

18
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

STAFF PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE

Regarding staff professional development the most frequent collaborations HEIs have with industry are when company
staff participate in university advisory boards and alumni organisations and also it is often that university staff get hired by
companies.

Faculties collaborating with companies on the following staff development-related activities

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

It seems that it is not very common for the industry sector to work together with universities on staff development activities.
The most frequent activity for company staff is to participate in training provided by universities (28%).

How often does industry collaborate with universities on

STAFF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT related activities?

Staff participate in training provided by universities

Our organisation hires staff from universities

Staff from universities spend time working in our

company
Staff are active in university Boards and advisory
groups

Staff are active in university Alumni organisations

Staff from our organisation spend time working in

the university Types of
Collaborations
Staff from our organisation have been hired by
universities

19
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

WORKING TIME SPENT IN UIC

ACTIVITIES

For academics the amount of time spent collaborating with

industry is more spread out with the peak at around 10-20%
of their working time and 42% of the sample spending more
than 20% of their total working time in university-industry
collaborations.

Industry spends less time of their working hours in

collaborations with academia. 40% of our industry sample
spend 0 to 5% of their time collaborating with HEIs. It is
important, however, to note that another 31% spends more
than 20% of their time in said collaborations.

Percentage of time working in UIC

Types of
Collaborations

20
 RELATIONSHIPS

“…treat a collaboration like a human relationship.

That’s what it all boils down to. Building a relationship
between two people. Therefore things like going for
lunch/coffee/drinks etc are important steps towards
creating understanding between partners.”

The largest theme that emerged during the interviews is that of the importance of personal and professional relationships
relating to UIC. Because of this, this section is going to be focused on

How are partners Who initiates

chosen contact

Mantaining the Defining a successful

collaboration collaboration

21
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

HOW ARE PARTNERS CHOSEN

In this section we examine how HEIs and business organisations practically go about choosing their collaboration partners.
It appears there are some similarities between HEIs and Industry in this regard . They both primarily try to build on their
existing partnerships. The second determining factor is the competence of the company or of the academic faculty. The next
determining criterion, the availability of personal contacts is a mutual one for both. However, a company’s reputation is also
in third place for HEIs however for industry this factor is further down in their priorities list.

How Industry choses Academics partners How HEIs chose their industry partners

Build on previous relationships Build on previous

relationships
Specific technological competence Faculty / research
of the company group competence
and reputation
Company reputation Availability of
personal contacts
Availability of personal contacts Faculties with
appropriate talent
Companies who fund or are willing pipeline
to fund our university
University reputation
Companies that hire many of our
graduates
Geographical proximity
Geographical proximity
Partners are chosen for us (e.g. Partners are chosen for us (e.g.
through collaboration in research through collaboration in research
consortia etc) consortia etc)

WHO INITIATES CONTACT

After the potential partners have been identified it is important to examine who makes the first step to kick off a
collaboration and how. It appears from our data that both HEIs and industry believe that academics usually initiate the
contact first. Industry also starts collaborations with academics although probably not as often. University management is
also responsible for starting collaborations sometimes and is in third place.

Who initiates contact?

Academics

Industrial partner/s

University Management

An external funding agency

Government Agency
Relationships

Other

22
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

MANTAINING
THE COLLABORATION
After contact has been made there are practices put in place that aim at preserving, maintaining and ideally advancing the
potential for collaborating.

ACADEMICS PERSPECTIVE

The three main activities that HEIs engage in at a good extent to maintain their collaborations with industry is first, to actively
promote collaboration with companies inside their institution. Second, they have top level management committed to working
with companies and third they have dedicated resources for supporting these kind of collaborations.
Engaging in activites to manage the relationships with companies

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
The three main activities that industry utilises for maintaining U-I collaborations are the same as the ones HEIs use but in
different order. First for industry is their top level management commitment to collaborate with HEIs. Second is to promote
working with universities internally in the company. The third activity is the existence of dedicated resources for supporting
these collaborations but it is interesting to note that for 44% of the industry sample this is practically not the case. This
practice is utilised only for 34% of our sample on a moderate extent and up.
Engaging in activites to manage the relationships with universities

Relationships

23
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

DEFINING A SUCCESSFUL
COOPERATION
Finally, it is important to examine how industry and academia define a successful collaboration and if they mean the same
thing when referring to one. Below are presented the most significant criteria for determining the success of a collaboration
for HEIs and Industry respectively. The available factors were drawn from the interviews during the first phase of this study.

In this section we see similarities between academia and industry in defining successful collaborations. However, their
criteria are not in the same order in terms of importance. It seems that for academics the most important indicator of
success is the mutual satisfaction of the parties involved in the collaboration. Industry on the other hand considers meet-
ing the project objectives as the most important factor. Successful knowledge transfer comes in second for HEIs while for
industry this place is taken by the mutual satisfaction of partners factor. Finally, for people in academia the third most im-
portant success factor is when a collaboration leads to more collaborations and fourth in that scale is meeting the project
objectives. Third place for industry’s criteria is successful knowledge transfer with talent recruitment coming in fourth.

ACADEMICS INDUSTRY
What are the factors that define What are the factors that define
a successful collaboration a successful collaboration

Mutual satisfaction
of partners involved Objectives of the project
are met
Successful
knowledge transfer Mutual satisfaction
of partners involved
Lead to further
collaborations
Successful knowledge
transfer
Objectives of the
project are met
Leads to better Recruitment of talent
understanding of
the other side
Lead to further
The solution provided collaborations
at the end of a project
is adopted by industry
Publishing of Results can be
findings as commercialised
academic papers
Leads to better
Recruitment of talent understanding of the other
side (academia - industry)

Results can be Adopting the solution

provided at the end of a
commercialised project
Funding agencies
requirements Funding agencies
satisfied requirements satisfied
Relationships

24
 RECOMMENDATIONS

This section is going to be focused on

BARRIERS IN
COLLABORATIONS

ENABLING
FACTORS

FUTURE DIRECTIONS /
EMERGING TRENDS

25
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

BARRIERS
IN COLLABORATIONS
In this section we examine the barriers that both sides of the collaboration face. In the following section the barriers will be
presented side by side with some relevant good practices that were collected during the interviews phase of the research.

ACADEMICS PERSPECTIVE
Most significant barriers in UIC for academics

The most important barrier for academics is the lack of time to invest in the collaboration. Second comes the lack
of financial resources necessary to undertake this action. Third are both the limited awareness of what the benefits
of the collaboration are and the perception that there are different motivations behind how universities and
businesses work. The take away message here is that the main barriers identified by people inside academia are
Recommendations
some internal difficulties that have to do with the university’s resources.

26
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
A similar trend can be observed in the barriers industry faces. Most important inhibiting factor is the lack of time on indus-
try’s side to take up collaborations. Then comes the lack of financial resources for the task and then the lack of awareness
on the potential benefits of collaborations with academic institutions. In fourth place is that industry is not really aware of
what universities do that could be of benefit to them. Finally, industry perceives as a barrier the different motivating factors
behind their own and academia’s ways of working.

Most significant barriers in UIC for Industry

Recommendations

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 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

ENABLING FACTORS
ACADEMICS PERSPECTIVE
In the academic sample the most important enabler for academic-industrial collaborations is for the two sides to have
common interests and shared goals for a successful collaboration. Second most important for people in academia is having
an existing trusted relationship with a company they are about to collaborate. The third motivating factor for academic
to work with industry is to make their university students more employable. The fourth factor addresses one of the main
barriers mentioned in the previous section and is the existence of financial resources within the HEI with the aim of working
with companies. In the fifth place there are two factors. One is about the academic curriculum gaining an industrial insight
and the other is about promoting their own graduates into being hired by companies.

Enabling factors for HEIs

Shared goal / common interest /

shared understanding

Existing trusted relationship and

commitment

Creating more employable students

Access to funding / financial resources

for working with companies

Industrial insight for the academic

curriculum

Promotion of your graduates (interns

and graduates) to companies

Ability to prototype/try out new ideas

for products and services

Increases profile of the faculty

Access to technology insights, industry

knowledge and expertise of company staff

Close proximity of industry partner

(e.g. within same city/region)

Access to R&D research facilities and

specialist equipment

Response to government directives /

incentives

Commercial orientation of university

Recommendations

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 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
For industry the main enabling factor, which also agrees with the interview findings, is gaining access to talented university
graduates directly from the academic institution and also access to research findings and technology transfer. The second
enabling factor, same as in the academic sample, is for companies to have already established a relationship with a university
based on trust and the same importance is placed on having shared interests and goals with their academic counterparts.

Enabling factors for Industry

Access to talent pipeline of graduates
(interns and graduates)
Access to research findings, technology
insights, scientific knowledge
Existing trusted relationship and
commitment
Shared goal / common interest /
shared understanding

Increases profile of our company

Access to knowledge and expertise of

university staff
Close proximity of university partner
(e.g. within same city / region)
Access to funding / financial resources
for working with universities
Corporate social responsibility
challenges
Access to R&D research facilities and
specialist equipment
Ability to prototype/try out new ideas
for products and services

Adaptability of the university staff

Influence the university curriculum

Commercial orientation of university

Response to government directives /

incentives

Recommendations

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 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

FUTURE DIRECTIONS/
EMERGING TRENDS
The technology sector does business in an international environment. Therefore, international collaborations are imperative and an impor-
tant future direction of UIC.

In this section we examine an emerging trend in the IT industry which has to with international talent recruitment.

INTERNATIONAL AND INTERCULTURAL SKILLS

First let’s see how important international and intercultural skills are for industry.

Importance of international an intercultural skills

54% of our industry sample
claimed that all staff in their
organisations must be able to work
in international contexts. Another
34% said that some staff in specific
roles must be able to work in an
international context. It is obvious
that international/intercultural skills
are quite important for industry.

INTERNATIONAL TALENT RECRUITMENT

Now let’s examine the international talent recruitment activities that industry engages in.

Industry activites related to International Talent Recruitment

Recommendations

30
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

It seems that industry does not engage in international recruitment a lot. The most frequent practice in the list is recruitment
of international graduates who have studied or worked in the same country as the company doing the hiring. More than half
of our industry sample said they do not host internships for international students in partnership with either a local or an
international university.

Finally, let’s examine what are the main barriers that inhibit companies from hosting international students.

INTERNATIONAL INTERNSHIPS
Finally, let’s examine what are the main barriers that inhibit companies from hosting international students.

Barriers to hosting international internships

The number one barrier is potential visa or immigrations issues relating to the student’s stay. The second most frequent
barrier is that the company is not aware of the student’s knowledge and skills. It is interesting to note that the differences in
language and culture, although they can be considered a barrier up to a certain extent, it is not the biggest inhibitor.

Recommendations

31
GOOD
PRACTICES &
GUIDELINES
In this section we present some of the tried and tested good
practices on UIC that were collected during the interview phase
of the project in five of the Hublinked partners’ countries,
namely Sweden, Finland, Ireland, France and Slovenia.

GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE

FOR INDUSTRY AND HEIS

INDUSTRY
Here are the most significant industry practices, techniques and strategies for enhancing industry’s UIC activities.

Forming strategic partnerships with certain Adjunct HEI professors that spend some of their time
universities and share their technology with working in particular companies.
them. These companies interact with university
management, researchers and students. Training PhD candidates on business issues relating to
attracting funding, selling their research and making
Inviting academics to do short-term consulting work links with universities and companies.
with a company.
Our interviews show that companies founded or run
Sponsoring PhD students and smaller student projects. by former academics or by PhD holders are more likely
to proactively identify academic partners in their
Starting a collaboration from something small like a region and try to interact with them.
student internship is helpful to smaller companies
that do not have a lot of money or time to invest in Proactively providing ICT faculties with research ideas
research. for students’ project and dissertations.

Companies that have as their policy to go after grants Attending university events (job fairs, open days,
for collaborative projects with universities. hackathons etc) and promoting the brand and creating
relationships with academics. Spending company time
People working in industry can give lectures to to building and maintaining academic networks of
students in vocational schools and in universities of contacts.
applied sciences.

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 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

UNIVERSITY
Some university policies and practices are implemented for industry to have a more active presence in academia.

Taking administrative steps and organising specialist In some cases having a percentage of the academic
teams within faculties that promote, build and go af- school’s budget not be paid by the government makes
ter collaborations with industry on a national, Europe- the researchers more active into going out to industry
an or even international level. in search for funding and building partnerships for re-
search grants.
Having a project office embedded within the faculty
with professionals with industrial experience whose Training PhD candidates on business issues relating to
sole purpose is to handle, maintain and scale up the attracting funding, selling their research and making
school’s portfolio of collaborative projects with indus- links with universities and companies.
try. This office should be dealing exclusively with the
It is not uncommon for the academics within techno-
Computer Science school and not with the entire aca-
logical higher education institutions to have previous
demic institution.
professional experience in industrial roles.
A clear point of contact between the university and
Faculties that invite industry people to give lectures to
the outside world in terms of arranging meetings/col-
the students or the academic staff and advise on the
laborations and building relationships with partners.
curriculum.
Institutional support to individual researchers who
Developed platforms for researchers and students
bring projects or funding in the HEI. That also includes
from different disciplines to build partnerships with
assisting academics with legal issues such as applying
companies and other universities like the DEMOLA
for patents.
platform in Oulu, Finland.
Establishing incubators inside the university campus
Regular communication between the partners even
for staff and especially for students who wish to cre-
via the internet helps. Since it’s usually the HEI that
ate a start-up or spin-off company and do technology
initiates collaborations it should be proactive in stay-
transfer in collaboration with industry. That has also
ing in touch with industry contacts.
an added benefit to the university. If the students
successfully launch a company that goes well this will Courses that universities offer specifically to industry
further improve the profile of the university which will professionals.
lead to more students coming in.
Student apprenticeships and internships in industry
Involving the younger researchers into the projects supervised by the university and by companies.
from an early stage.

Good
Practices &
Guidelines

33
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

PRACTICES THAT APPLY TO BOTH

ACADEMIA AND INDUSTRY

1 Using established intermediary knowledge transfer organisations (“project brokers”) for bridging the gap
between industry and academia.

2 The use of a “maturity level scale” for mapping industry’s interactions with HEIs. Starting from small
projects and building it upwards.

3 Companies hosting academic researchers in their workspace for a few days each week and vice versa.
Sharing the same physical space with their partners from academia or industry.

4 Clear and comprehensive legal frameworks on handling intellectual property and patent ownership.

5 Organising events to network with members of the local technological ecosystem.

6 HEIs collaborating on short duration projects of just a few months, along with the longer national and
EU-funded ones to accommodate industry’s shorter business cycles.

7 Treating a collaboration like a human relationship.

8 The possibility for academics to take industrial sabbaticals and go work in industry for 6 months to a year
before coming back to their academic institution.

Good
Good
Good
Good
Practices
Practices&&&
Practices
Practices & 9 Government policies that provide funding and tax incentives to companies for funding industrial PhDs.
Guidelines
Guidelines
Guidelines
Guidelines

34
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

11 FACTORS AND PERSONAL SKILLS

NECESSARY FOR SUCCESSFUL
COLLABORATIONS
Apart from the good practices which are explicit, practical activities, policies or methods for effective university-industry
collaborations we have also collected a set of factors and skills that enhance collaborations implicitly and have to do more
with qualitative characteristics of the people involved.

TRUST

1 Trust between the partners is the most important factor for academic-industrial collaborations. This has been mentioned
in almost every single interview during our data collection.

EXPERIENCE IN BOTH FIELDS

2 Academics with industrial experience and industry people with PhDs or academic experience. Having PhD holders in
companies offers a linkage into universities and EU-research grants and helps companies gain a better understanding in
how research in academia works.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT SKILLS

3 Listening to each partner Having a vision of what needs to happen and when

4
MINDSET
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
5
TInvesting in personal relationships. It’s all personal Critical thinking and being open to listen to new ideas.

relationships.

COMMUNICATION UNDERSTANDING

6 Good communication, foreign languages, team-

7 An understanding of both the academic and the

working and presentation skills. industrial side (for SATT).

LEGAL AGREEMENTS EU-FUNDED POJECTS

8 9 Companies having experience in doing EU-funded
Good and concise legal agreements/frameworks
before a project is launched. projects helps with the collaboration.

FOCUS ON DELIVERABLES PROXIMITY

10 Understanding what your partners need and what you

11 Working in close proximity is a plus.

have to deliver.
Good
Practices &
Guidelines

35
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

HubLinked involved 11 partners from 9 different countries.

By creating a sustainable strategic network of major European ICT
hubs, the goal of HubLinked is to strengthen Europe’s software
innovation capacity by learning from regions of proven ICT
strength and sharing that knowledge with all regions.

Although the ICT sector is a major economic sector in Europe,

HubLinked also includes SMEs in the non-software sector to
provide a ‘low-cost low-commitment’ mechanism to prototype
software innovations. An established partnership of large,
industry-focused computer science faculties have come
together with a representative mix of industry partners (large
multinationals, SMEs in both the software and other sectors and
start-up companies).
HubLinked partnership can directly reach over 3,000 companies,
12,000 students and 400 staff during the lifetime of the project.

HubLinked has created a network of European ICT professionals

that has increased the innovation capacity and competitiveness
of European software hubs and helped underpin education,
research, innovation, trade and economic development.

36
 A Guide to a Successful
Industry-Academia Collaboration

The goal of HubLinked is to strengthen

software innovation capacity in Europe.

Our aim is to upskill academic and industry

staff to collaborate in software innovation;

to develop global software innovators who

can work in any sector; and to increase the

participation of women in the ICT sector.

Prof Brian O’Neill, Director of Research,

Innovation and Enterprise Services,
Technological University Dublin

KEEP YOURSELF UPDATED ON THE PROJECT!

www.hublinked.eu
@hublinkedka

@hub_linked

@hub_linked

37
DISCLAIMER
The European Commission’s support for the production of
this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the
contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the
Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may
be made of the information contained therein.