May 20, 2010
CIHE explores the role of university research in business and market innovation
The CIHE today releases ‘Absorbing Research’, a report that explores how collaborations between universities and business can have a positive impact on the economy and wellbeing of the UK.
The report, sponsored by Research Councils UK, investigates the nature, scale and contribution of university research to company innovation processes. It focuses on how university and business can work together to co-create solutions to the challenges we face today. To get the most out of university-business collaboration, the report found a company’s ability to acquire and absorb research was critical to the success of effective knowledge exchange.
In the report, CIHE make a number of wide-ranging recommendations to Research Councils UK and other agencies about how they can better support university-business research collaboration. CIHE calls for the use of financial levers to change behaviour ensuring both sides of collaborations better understand each other. Further recommendations include ensuring commercial skills are built into career progression programmes for young researchers, enabling them to work more effectively with companies.
Dr David Docherty, Chief Executive of CIHE said:
“Companies and universities need a shared understanding of how research can contribute to economic growth. Businesses recognise that university researchers can generate novel ideas and think at ‘right angles’ to their own R&D staff. University research has a distinctive contribution to make in creating value through supporting company innovation processes.”
The report ‘Absorbing research: The role of university research in business and market innovation’ is based on the findings from 22 case study companies and can be found here or by emailing lucy.bartram@cihe.co.uk
[...] Social & economic impact of research & business collaborations in UK By LIS Research Support A new report – “Absorbing Research: The role of university research in business and market innovation” -has been published by the CIHE (Council for Industry and Higher Education). The report, sponsored by RCUK, draws on 22 case studies and recommends a variety of ways in which RCUK can help to support and promote collaboration between academic researchers and business. There are proposals for incorporating the development of ‘commercial skills’ into the career progression of early career researchers, as well as for using financial incentives to encourage collaboration between business and university researchers. The report sees the development of the impact factor in research funding as important, but recommends that the funding councils should go beyond ‘issuing guidelines about impact’ and proposes the ‘Research Councils should support the experiential learning of different ways of developing different pathways to impact’. From analysis of the case studies and company workshops, the report also draws a list of ‘enabling’ and ‘limiting’ factors. For example, businesses can find the academic research pace slower than the commercial, and the quest for ‘results which are both robust and repeatable’ can ‘sometimes be incompatible with commercial objectives, where an “80%” solution may suffice’. On the other hand, there was an appreciation for the greater objectivity of university researchers, and a belief that ‘leading edge research’ is only to be found in universities. The report, which RCUK considers to be in line with its own support for ‘excellent research that attracts business and industry from around the world’ is available from the CIHE website. [...]