Industry-Academia Collaborative Projects

What if we stopped treating university-SME collaboration as a “nice to have” and started treating it as economic infrastructure? A new report from CSIRO and the University of Queensland reveals what actually happens when small and medium enterprises (SMEs) work with universities and research institutions (URIs). The results are compelling. Collaborations between SMEs and URIs are widely acknowledged as drivers of innovation. But this report digs deeper, asking: what’s the real commercial payoff for the firms involved? Based on a survey of 201 Australian businesses across diverse sectors and regions, Commercial Outcomes of SME–Research Collaboration analyses three types of engagement: 🔹 Facilitated dollar-matched programmes 🔹Competitive grants 🔹Student placement programmes The findings? 🔹66% of SMEs reported new or improved products—clear evidence that collaboration brings ideas to market. 🔹Prototypes, independent validation, and derisked R&D were common outcomes, especially for early-stage firms. 🔹Facilitated, entry-level collaborations delivered outcomes nearly on par with large, competitive grants—but with smaller budgets and greater accessibility. 🔹Regional SMEs outperformed their metro counterparts across nearly all dimensions, from innovation to credibility to market expansion. Sectoral insights are equally striking: 🔹Medtech and biotech firms focused on R&D derisking; 🔹Manufacturing and digital tech SMEs reported strong product development outcomes; 🔹Energy businesses used partnerships to validate solutions for market credibility. In New Zealand, we often underinvest in the connective tissue that makes innovation happen. This report shows that well-designed, fit-for-purpose collaboration programmes can unlock capability, especially for regional and smaller firms. The message is clear: industry-university collaboration is a catalyst. And in an economy where resilience and diversification are more important than ever, we can’t afford to overlook it. https://lnkd.in/gTHhRiBQ

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬, 𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. I have been noticing, 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬—𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐡𝐃𝐬—𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐰. According to a UNESCO report, while over two million research papers were published globally in 2022, less than 30% had any cited industrial or societal application. Similarly, in the U.S., an analysis by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) reveals that only about 5% of patents filed by universities reach the commercialization stage. An increasing trend among academicians involves co-founding companies as a superficial indicator of market engagement. Registration alone is relatively inexpensive in many countries, and without substantial follow-through—market traction, talent acquisition, funding, or a public footprint—these entities may remain on paper only. A recent investigation revealed that several award-winning researchers, who claimed numerous corporate collaborations and company foundations, had little to no market visibility, casting doubt on the actual impact of these ventures. Many academics, unfortunately misuse resources. 𝐈𝐧𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐬: 📌 Academia needs to prioritize real, industry-defined challenges rather than theoretical, manufactured problems. Direct engagement with industry experts, SMEs, and MSMEs can provide authentic, field-tested insights that are foundational for impactful research. Industry problems are keep changing thus academicians, startup fraternities have to update regularly through thoroughly ground level research, market survey and industry trends.📌 From problem identification to prototyping and commercialization, industry partners should be deeply involved. 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝-𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐬. 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐬: 📌 Kalasalingam’s engineering faculty and students have partnered with small-scale industries to create low-cost solar and biomass energy solutions. 📌Chitkara University’s agribusiness program collaborates with small-scale food producers to enhance food storage and packaging solutions. 📌BAMU has collaborated with local agricultural industries and farmers to develop cost-effective soil health monitoring systems. #industryproblems #msme #patent

Two years ago, I moved to Austria with curiosity in my heart and a question in my mind: What if Austrian and Indian universities could do more together? This week, that “what if” felt more real than ever. TU Austria (a network of TU Wien, TU Graz, and Montanuniversität Leoben) this week has launched a powerful initiative with India, supported by €5 million in funding from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy. This isn't just another exchange program. It’s a strategic bridge — rooted in academic diplomacy, built on trust and excellence, and aimed at addressing the global challenges of our time: 📌 Circular economy 📌 Climate-neutral technologies 📌 Sustainable infrastructure 📌 AI and digitalization As someone who has worked for a decade at the intersection of academia, innovation, and international collaboration — from Indian universities to top US institutions, and now actively engaging with Austrian universities — I see this as a defining moment. A moment to: 🎯 Co-create joint research labs 🎯 Launch PhD exchange programs with dual supervision 🎯 Design transdisciplinary academic-industry clusters between Austria and India 🎯 Develop curriculum and mobility models for the future of STEM education This is where I’d love to contribute — as a consultant and bridge-builder for universities in both countries. Helping map opportunities, facilitate strategic dialogues, and enable world-class programs that serve both nations — and the planet. 📢 To university leaders, deans, researchers, and innovation offices — let’s talk. Because when two strong academic cultures come together, we don’t just exchange students. We exchange futures. Read more about the initiative: https://lnkd.in/dfvprh4U (English summary also available via TU Austria) #AustriaIndia #AcademicDiplomacy #JointResearch #HigherEducation #CircularEconomy #GlobalCollaboration #TUAustria #InnovationBridges

Academics are rewarded for publishing a proof-of-concept, but industry needs the whole solution. This fundamental misalignment is why so many promising research breakthroughs never make it to market. We experienced this to be true in protein engineering, when starting Cradle: Academia publishes: "We improved protein activity by 2x in round 1" Industry needs: "We optimized this protein across 8 rounds and 6 different properties" The incentive structures are opposite: Academic success = First meaningful result → Publish the initial breakthrough → Move to next novel problem → Get funded and advance career through publications → Timeline: 2-3 years per paper Industry success = Complete solution → Iterate through multiple rounds → Solve nitty-gritty problems and make difficult trade-offs → Get to market-ready product → Timeline: 5-10 years per product This creates a large translation gap. When we started building Cradle, we needed longitudinal datasets to benchmark our technology - multiple rounds of protein engineering data showing how improvements compound over time. These datasets barely exist in academic literature. Not because academics can't do multi-round studies. But because there's no career incentive (nor sufficient funding) to publish "Round 5 of the same project." How to close the gap? On the one hand, we built an in-house wet lab to generate longitudinal datasets for benchmarking models. On the other hand, partnerships between academia and industry can help to push projects beyond that first promising result.

🔖 Interested in academia-industry collaboration in #edtech? Read this new Commentary by a group of academic researchers collaborating with EdTech companies around the world. While we’ve seen many positive examples, the work hasn’t always been easy. We’ve faced challenges such as: 🔻 Early contract terminations or pressure to reanalyse data when results didn’t show positive impacts expected by the companies 🔻Unequal legal support, with individual researchers at academic institutions lacking the resources available to large corporate legal teams 🔻 Difficulty maintaining fair project timelines, due to ongoing “mission creep” (repeated requests for new revisions beyond what was originally agreed) We advocate for: 🔺 Formalized data-sharing protocols that promote transparency and open science 🔺 Dedicated legal support units for public-private partnerships at universities 🔺A centralized, anonymized data repository to enable more rigorous cross-study analyses. This would strengthen the evidence base not just for individual companies, but for the EdTech field as a whole ✍ Article co-authored with Todd Cherner Adam Dubé Adrian Pasquarella Nicola Pitchford Dr Helen Ross 🙏Thank you Sonia Livingstone Candice Odgers and Amy Orben for starting this important debate and thank you Prof Bernadka Dubicka Editor in Chief Child and Adolescent Mental Health, for facilitating the conversation in the journal! Download from:

  New-generation Faculty Leaders Aim to Transform Indian Design, Semiconductor, Packaging, and Systems (IDSPS) with Next-Gen R&D and Workforce Initiative. The three-way partnership between Meity, academia, and industry created IDSPS as a national R&D and workforce program with 80 faculty from 30 Institutions and 80 global companies. Together, they made outstanding progress. They are ready to form industry consortiums in 12 industry centers to build the nation, educate 2000 Ph. Ds, 3000 MTech, 3000 BTech, and reeducate 15,000 industry engineers, as described below. 1. System Designs and Architectures by Profs. Kumar (IITJ) & Sharma (IIT Ropar) focuses on high-bandwidth computing, power efficiency, privacy, and security, as well as design for signal, power, EMI, and ESD. 2. CMOS Devices by Profs. Mohapatra (IITGN) & Dixit (IITD) focuses on the next-gen (< 3nm) semiconductor materials, process modeling, and characterization of logic and memory devices. Power Devices by Profs. Akshay K (IIT BBS) & Brag (IITG) focuses on device modeling, simulation and design, substrate and epi growth, device fabrication and characterization.  3. Package Substrates by Profs. Dixit (IITB) &Arora (IITJ) focuses on glass substrates with advances in package design, embedded components, large panel lithography, and polymer-Cu RDL  4. Co-packaged Optics by Profs. Emani (IITH) & Sudharsanan (ITTM) focuses on design of co-packaged optics for higher bandwidth at lower power than electronic packages, photonic interconnections, hybrid bonding assembly, and fiber coupling.  5. Predictive Modeling & Design by Profs. Agarwal (IITGN)& Roy (IITKGP) focuses on AI- assisted design for reliability, multi-physics design, materials, interfaces and stress development.  6. 6G Integrated Systems by Profs. Mandal (IITKGP), Duttagupta (IITB)& Kumar (IITG) focuses on low-loss glass substrates with embedded devices, components, and package-integrated antennas.  7. Integrated Sensors & MEMS by Profs. Mitra (IITD)& KP Rao (BITS) focus on new concepts in inertial sensors, resonators, printed sensors,2D materials, and sensor fusion.  8 Materials for Devices, Components & Packaging by Profs. Bhagwati on non-volatile memory, Kumar(IISc) on package materials & Murali (NIT Calicut) on components.  9. IC and Board Assembly by Profs. Badwe (IITK) & Govind Singh (IITH) focuses on Cu-Cu bonding, sintered Cu die-attach and fiber coupling assembly.  10. Thermal Technologies by Profs. Bhattacharya(IITKGP) &Ambirajan(IISc) focuses on liquid cold plates, 2-phase and boiling heat transfer, and thermal interfaces.  11. Integrated Power Electronics by Profs. Shiladri(ITB) & Yadav(IITR) focuses on integrated power modules with advances in system design, power devices, components, sintered-Cu die attach, and double-side liquid cooling.   12. System Electrical Test by Profs. Tudu (IIT TP) & Ahlawat (IIT Jammu) focuses on test advances in chiplets, 2.5D glass packages, boundary scan, analog and mixed signal.

Is collaboration really an important factor for Early Stage Startup’s and Academia? As a pivotal component of the early startup growth strategy, it's imperative to recognize and address the barriers that impede collaboration between academia and early-stage startups. By illuminating these hurdles and exploring avenues for synergy, we can unlock a wealth of opportunities for innovation and mutual benefit. 1. The misalignment of goals and timelines presents a significant hurdle. While academia delves into long-term research, startups are driven by short-term commercialization. 2. Academia values peer-reviewed publications, whereas startups prioritize product development and market penetration. These differences can impede effective communication and collaboration. 3. Intellectual property concerns further complicate matters. Academics fear losing control over their research findings, while startups seek exclusive rights for investment. Navigating this complex landscape demands transparent frameworks and mutual trust. Despite these obstacles, promising initiatives are emerging to bridge the gap. Technology transfer offices at universities facilitate knowledge transfer and partnerships, while startup accelerators nurture collaboration between academia and entrepreneurial talent. Appreciate your views!

Not every partnership starts with a grant—and that’s a good thing. Some of the best university–industry collaborations I’ve seen didn’t begin with a contract or a call for proposals. Instead, they started with visibility, curiosity, and shared value. If you’re in industry looking to collaborate with academic researchers—or a researcher wondering how to open doors without funding in hand—here are 3 high-impact ways to start building partnerships today: 🏢 Shared infrastructure When universities offer access to cutting-edge core facilities or pilot data platforms, it lowers the barrier to engagement. It’s also a signal: “We’re open for collaboration.” 🧑🎓 Student talent pipelines Co-mentoring students or engaging in thesis committees, poster sessions, or industry advisory boards gives you early access to emerging talent—and to the minds driving the research. 🔗 Digital discoverability If you can’t be found, you can’t be funded. Whether you’re a PI or a partnership lead, keep your online presence updated with areas of interest and potential fit. Partnerships don’t start at the grant—they start at the search bar. Let’s stop treating early-stage relationship building as a “nice to have.” It’s how we unlock bigger outcomes—faster. If you agree, let's connect! #industryuniversitypartnerships #researchtranslation #beyondthegrant

How to work with industry as an academic: Old way - Waiting for industry to approach you - Publishing research without industry relevance - Limited networking within academic circles - Minimal collaboration opportunities New way - Proactively reaching out to industry partners - Designing research with practical applications - Building strategic cross-sector relationships - Creating mutually beneficial collaboration frameworks Industry collaboration > Traditional academic isolation Throughout my academic journey, I've discovered that bridging the gap between research and real-world application isn't just possible. It’s essential. Academic research becomes truly impactful when it solves tangible industry challenges. The key is transforming your academic expertise into a valuable industry asset. This means understanding industry challenges, communicating practical implications of your research, and demonstrating how your work can drive innovation and solve complex problems. Have you successfully bridged academia and industry in your professional journey? What strategies worked best for you? #Science #ResearchImpact #Scientist #PhD #Postgraduate #Professor #Research #Collaboration

Bridging Academia and Industry in Corporate Venturing While corporate leaders bring practical experience, academics provide a long-term perspective, uncovering governance best practices, success frameworks, and hidden dynamics within venture ecosystems. In our latest piece, we highlight key insights from leading academics like Claudia Zeisberger (INSEAD), Gary Dushnitsky (London Business School), Ilya Strebulaev (Stanford University Graduate School of Business), Jeffrey Bussgang (Harvard Business School), and more. Their research underscores: - The strategic value of CVC beyond financial returns - The need for governance structures that ensure long-term success - The importance of relationship-building between corporate investors and startups - How impact investing is shaping the future of corporate venturing 💡 Key takeaway: Successful CVCs go beyond capital. They provide strategic guidance, operational support, and deep industry expertise to startups. We’re grateful to the academics who shared their knowledge and look forward to continuing the dialogue between academia, industry, and the venture community. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gjm5d7Kj