How do you get two different cultures – universities and private enterprise – to work together and collaborate to develop industries and create jobs?
In my previous post, I talked about the role of universities as a hub of innovation and technology research. However, translating university research into successful products and solutions has its challenges.
As co-chair of the Industry Subcommittee on the Ohio Board of Regents Commercialization Task Force, we developed a series of recommendations to increase and improve technology transfer among Ohio’s universities and industry. But I believe these recommendations have relevance beyond the borders of Ohio.
Three central themes emerged from our work.
One of the things that struck me was the importance of building strong relationships between universities and companies. While universities and industry have different missions and cultures, there are mutual benefits to these collaborations. Therefore, if both universities and industry are more creative and flexible when approaching collaborations it will lead to stronger results.
From the university perspective, this can be accomplished through building a university-innovation ecosystem where campus policies encourage and reward industry collaborations. Ultimately, the goal is to foster an environment that supports innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.
“It’s important for universities to nurture an entrepreneurial culture by offering tangible incentives to researchers and increasing opportunities for students to be engaged with developing and commercializing new technologies”, said task force member Philip Brennan, CEO of Echogen Power Systems Inc. The Akron, Ohio based start-up is developing a system to transform waste heat into electricity.
Mr. Brennan continued, “Universities can also support early stage entrepreneurs to help fill some of the funding gaps for prototypes and proof of concept testing.”
Ultimately, we must do more to bridge the gaps between universities and industry. Universities bring a lot to the table: rigorous research methods and standards, access to a wide variety of resources from physical infrastructure to outside-in perspective of creative and energetic minds, and much more.
So if universities can be more customer-friendly in their approach to industry it will expedite the tech transfer process. By universities taking into consideration the industries as their immediate customers as well as the industries’ customers, it will help establish priorities and goals for industry-university collaborations. Creating a central point of contact at universities for companies to engage and pursue collaborations is also key. It makes it easier for interested companies to investigate a university’s offerings and navigate quickly and effectively within the university structure to speed up the tech transfer process.
We also looked at spacial relationships. Even from a statewide perspective, local geography plays an important role. We found that regional industry strengths and innovation clusters are very conducive to fostering growth and opportunity.
The multiple areas of synergy between universities and innovation clusters help to grow robust regional economies. Universities provide technology, research, and human capital and are truly anchored in a region as they are unlikely to ever move. In turn, a cluster can provide industry relationships and an increased focus. By having an active cluster when grant proposals come up for research-related endeavors, the partnerships are easy to form.
Universities may also find it beneficial to collaborate among themselves to standardize and simplify the tech transfer process to make it faster and more efficient. Reducing administrative hurdles through master agreements and standardized templates simplifies the legal process that companies and universities use to negotiate research projects, allowing innovative ideas to come to fruition faster.
While the potential benefits are huge, the obstacles are no less substantial, but they are not insurmountable. Universities and industries live and work in very different worlds. Breaking down the barriers between those worlds will spur new technologies, product development, create new industries and accelerate the growth of regional economies across the United States.
