INDUSTRY

ACADEMIA
LINKAGES
Industry Academia Linkages I-A-L
Collaboration between universities and industries is critical for:
■ Skill Development (Education & Training)
■ Acquisition and adoption of knowledge (Innovation & technology Transfer)
■ Entrepreneurship (Starts ups & Spin offs)
Benefits of I-A-L
■ Coordinate R& D agendas
■ Avoid duplications
■ Stimulate R& D investments
■ Exploit synergies
■ Complementarities of scientific and technological capabilities
For Example:

A study in Chile and Colombia shows that collaboration with universities

substantially increased the propensity of firms to introduce new products
and to patent

(Marotta, Blom, and Thorn 2007).

 Types of University Industrial Links
High Research partnerships Inter-organizational arrangements for pursuing collaborative R&D,
(Relationshi including research consortia and joint projects.
ps Research services Research-related activities commissioned to universities by
industrial clients, including contract research, consulting, quality
control, testing, certification, and prototype development.
Shared infrastructure Use of university labs and equipment by firms, business incubators,
and technology parks located within universities.
Medium Academic entrepreneurship Development and commercial exploitation of technologies pursued
(Mobility) by academic inventors through a company they (partly) own (spin-
off companies).
Human resource training and Training of industry employees, internship programs, postgraduate
transfer training in industry, secondments to industry of university faculty
and research staff, adjunct faculty of industry participants.
Low Commercialization of intellectual Transfer of university-generated IP (such as patents) to firms (e.g.,
(Transfer) property via licensing).
Scientific publications Use of codified scientific knowledge within industry.
Informal interaction Formation of social relationships (e.g., conferences, meetings,
social networks).
Source: Adapted from Perkmann and Walsh 2007, Tables 2 and 3
What is Industry Academia Interface?

■ A secured future for aspirants, less time and capital invested on grooming fresher, and
financial backing to the partner academic institutes.

■ An important parameter of success for any B-school is its ability to offer corporate
interface for its students, which enhances their practical knowledge to face the corporate
world.
Objectives
■ Major source of research funding for academia.
■ Industry gains valuable insight from key opinion leaders.
■ Complementary capabilities and skill sets.
■ Industry trends and practices.
■ Designing the course curriculum and other value added programmes based on
industry requirements.
■ Source for external project sponsored by the companies.
■ Bring-in consultancy project.
■ Create employable students “Industry-ready students”.
■ Curricula, faculty, infrastructure, pedagogy improvements in line with the industry’s
requirements of demand for skilled professionals.
 Different Priorities at different stages of economic
development
Most developed countries Least developed countries
Teaching  Private participation in graduate  Curricula development to improve
University programs. undergraduate and graduate studies
 Joint supervision of PhD students  Student internships

Research  Research consortia and long term  Building absorptive capacity to adopt and
University research partnerships to conduct diffuse already existing technologies
frontier research
 Focus on appropriate technologies to
respond to local need

Entrepreneurial  Spin-off companies, patent  Business incubation services

University licensing
 Entrepreneurship education
 Entrepreneurship education
Different Gateways
■ Concept of Industry-Institute Partnership Cell. A dedicated efforts to institutionalize
the initiatives.
■ Guest Lecture by experienced person from industry.
■ Industrial visit.
■ Deputing faculty in industry to work in the lean period.
■ Organizing workshop/seminar periodically and invite the corporate people to deliver
lecture and interact.
■ Joint FDP.
■ Panel Discussions.
■ CEO Interactions.
■ Corporate Excellence Award Functions
Motivations for Collaborations
For Universities:
■ Improvement of Teaching
■ Access to funding
■ Reputation enhancement
■ Access to empirical data from industry
For Firms:
■ Access to complementary technological knowledge
■ Tapping into pool of skilled workers
■ Providing training to existing or future employees
■ Access to university’s facilities and equipment's
■ Access to public funding and incentives
■ Sharing cost of R& D
Barriers to University- Industry
Collaborations:
Firms:
■ Firms focus on fast commercial results on basic research in Universities
■ Firms seek Short- term results and clear contributions to current business lines
■ Firms are interested to quickly generate patents & Products.
■ Firms want to delay Research publications to avoid disclosing information.
■ Firms are concerned about secrecy and misalignment of expectations with regard to
IP rights.
Universities:
■ University Researchers are motivated to publish research results as fast as possible.
Policies to promote University Industry
Collaborations
1)Public Policy:
■ Direct role: Public policy may influence the propensity of firms to collaborate with
universities through a in providing funds to universities and R&D projects.
■ Regulatory role: Which influences the rule sets of public universities and shapes the
intellectual property rights regime.
■ Another role of public policy is to provide the necessary infrastructure and intermediate
organizations such as:
■ PHEC
■ HEC
■ HED
■ LKP
■ PCSIR (STIP)
■ PRDC
Continue..
2) R&D incentives and grants
To stimulate university-industry collaboration is to design:
■ R&D research grants
■ Matching grants
■ Tax-incentives
■ Innovation voucher (small lines of credit provided by governments to firms)
Proposals to earn Grants
■ Performance-based funding of universities and reward systems for researchers
Governments can seek to stimulate university-industry collaboration through their
role in funding public universities.
■ Governments can reform the reward systems for university professors and
researchers by introducing new incentives to collaborate with industry. Teaching
experience and publications continue to be dominant criteria in tenure track
systems and salary scales.
■ Since the 2000s most OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development) countries have introduced new measures to promote and reward
university researchers for developing industry linkages, such as R&D funds
mobilized from private sources, earnings from consulting, income from patent
licensing, and participation in spin-offs or start-ups.
■ Another option is to provide sabbaticals for researchers to launch research-related
enterprises. More broadly, any university regulations that might lead to excessive
bureaucracy or unnecessary restrictions on how researchers interact with firms
should be removed, whenever possible.
Continue…
Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer offices
■ The United States pioneered in introducing new regulations to stimulate the patent
activity of universities and to enable commercialization of research products by
introducing Intellectual property rights regime and technology transfer Besides legal
reforms, regulatory frameworks also include voluntary guidelines for IP management and
codes of conduct in collaborative projects.
■ Technology transfer offices (TTO) in universities has become a widespread institutional
mechanism to assist researchers in patenting their findings and obtaining license fees
and royalties.
■ TTOs provide a wide array of services aimed at improving the technology transfer cycle,
such as:
■ Patent application process
■ Licensing agreements
■ Search for partners and funding sources
■ Training and support in the creation of university-based spin-offs.
(Correa and Zuñiga 2013).
Science parks, spin-offs, and business
incubators
University-industry links can be more shape up by developing:
■ Science Parks (STIP under PCSIR)
■ Vice Chancellors conference at LCCI
■ Lahore Knowledge park (LKP)
■ Business incubation center (BIC)
Education and Training
■ Education and training remains one of the key roles of universities, especially in
lower income countries where the lack of skilled workers is a major bottleneck
hindering the competitiveness and innovative capacity of firms.
■ A first step is to establish a consultative process whereby the voice of relevant
business managers is considered in curriculum development, so that university
programs better respond to industry needs.
■ Governments can also establish and support student internship programs for
undergraduates, Graduates and PhD’s such as:
■ For example, in Chile, within the context of the Science for the Knowledge
Economy Project financed by the World Bank (2003–07), the government
offered scholarships for PhD students and young researchers to conduct their
research in firms.
Globalization and university-industry
collaboration
■ Collaborations between local industry and foreign universities can play a critical role
in the absorption and adaptation of knowledge developed abroad (National
Innovation system).
■ Globalization of innovation brings both opportunities and challenges for developing
countries such as Multinational companies (MNCs) have substantially expanded
their global innovation networks.
■ Policy makers should strive to stimulate collaboration between multinational
subsidiaries and local universities as a mechanism to attract their R&D activity and
to enhance local learning and technology transfer.
■ Growing number of leading universities from developed countries are opening up
campuses in developing countries to provide training in situ or to engage in R&D.
This allows universities to globally leverage their reputation, knowledge base, and
management practices.
■ Attracting foreign universities represents an opportunity for developing countries to
develop the potential for international technology transfer and diffusion, as well as
to bolster the learning and demonstration effect on local universities.
Industrial Collaborations in Light of QS
World Ranking
According to research carried out by Science Business Innovation Board AISBL, a Belgian
not-for-profit scientific association, these collaborations need to move from specific projects
to strategic relationships. But how do you make a shift from project focused to strategic
focus?
Here are nine key learning points suggested in the report, to help your institution achieve
this shift:
■ 1. University leadership is vital
■ 2. Built-in flexibility works best in long-term strategic partnership
■ 3. Develop the strategy based on a shared vision
■ 4. Choose leaders who cross cultural boundaries between academia and industry
■ 5. Facilitate dialogue and cross-fertilization of ideas
■ 6. Do not get too focused on intellectual property
■ 7. Promote a multidisciplinary approach to research and learning.
■ 8. Don’t focus on metrics as an outcome of a successful partnership.
■ 9. Redefine the role of the research university as a source of competence and problem-
solving for society.
 Industry academia linkage in Pakistan
■ IAL situation is not encouraging.
■ Triple helix is working independently and has nothing to do with
other elements.
■ Universities rarely engage with industry.
■ Neither has industry made any serious effort to generate some
practical interests in universities.
■ The role of government is also very disappointing.
The Higher Education Commission in recent past years has made
some attempts to reduce the gap between industry and academia but
these have not yielded impressive results.
■ Industry and academia partnerships can play a major role in
student recruitment, retention, and workforce development from
within the local economy.
Continue…
IAL includes:
■ Execution of consultancy projects
■ Industry-specific sponsored chairs
■ Collaborative research
■ Development projects
■ Commercialization of innovation.
At this level, professors are found in industries for consultancy and top executives in
universities for teaching.
■ A higher level of human resource sharing takes place that results into need satisfaction of
both entities where one sees academia has demand for funds, and the industry is short of
time and human resource to carry on research. Thus a mutual juxtaposition of both entities
results into high level of knowledge spillovers and increased economic growth.
■ Lower level of IAL results into academically and research-wise poor universities. The
countries having higher level of IAL have higher productivity and competitive economies.
Advantages of the Collaborative
Relationships
■ Social benefits: Society benefits from university-industry research relationships through
innovative products and technologies.
■ University benefits. Interactions with industry are clearly thought out with attention paid to
the benefits that will accrue to the university.
■ Additionally, faculty benefit through the access to cutting-edge scientific equipment not
always available in university labs. This equipment enables faculty to pursue additional
lines of research that, ultimately, contribute to faculty productivity (such as additional
external funds as well as increased publications).
■ Company benefits. University-industry collaborations can stimulate companies' internal
research and development programs.
■ Finally, university-industry research relationships strengthen companies' research and
development (R&D).
Disadvantages of the Collaborative
Relationships
■ Academic researchers are compelled to approach research without regard for its
commercial benefits
■ To share the results with peers so they can be examined and validated
■ To train future researchers for universities and industries
■ Universities must balance their relationships with industry to reflect traditional
academic norms, as well as those of industry
■ High-profile agreements and legal disputes have created concerns that university
faculty no longer set their own research agendas
■ Ownership issues can arise between universities and companies who establish
research relationships, causing universities to develop more formal relationships
with corporate sponsors through contracts that clearly stipulate data ownership as
well as interest in any products developed from university-industry research.
University Industry Technology Support
Program (UITSP) by HEC
■ Fostering a high-level of tangible cooperation between academia and industry.
■ To capitalize on emerging international demands for products and processes in discrete
and continuous manufacturing that shall contribute to the national economy.
■ Harnessing the potential of highly competitive sectors for international trade which
needs development both for local and international consumption.
■ Focused sector wise identification of products and processes in discrete and continuous,
as well as import and export, trends is available from the public domain local and
international statistical data.
■ PhD degrees and affiliation with international professional bodies, collaborate with the
local industry for tangible results in terms of improvement of product and processes
leading to decreased import of raw material and increased export of the finished product
and processes
■ The purpose of these grants is to promote scientific research in applied sciences in the
country and to strengthen the indigenous capacity for industrial competition in the world
market.
■ The research grant will be provided for a maximum period of two years with a budget of
up to Rs. 6 million.
 ACTION PLAN/ FUURE IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

Following are the points that comes as an Action Plan:

■ Organization of Vice Chancellors Conference at Lahore Chamber of commerce and
Industry (LCCI) and Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and industry
(FPCCI).
■ Collaboration of University Science technology and innovation Parks (STIP) with
Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR).
■ Lahore Knowledge Park (LKP) Collaboration with Industries, LCCI & FPCCI and
Universities.
■ Understanding Effective role of Business incubation Center (BIC) of Universities and
Collaboration with Industry (LCCI & FPCCI)
■ Collaboration of Higher Education Department (HED), Punjab Higher Education
Commission (PHEC) & Federal Higher Education Commission (HEC) with Industry
(LCCI & FPCCI).
■ Establishment of Science Technology and innovation Parks (STIP) at all Universities.
■ Bringing all stakeholders on one page through collaborations.
Conclusion
■ The most appropriate approach to promoting university-industry collaboration
depends on the country’s technological and institutional endowments and its
willingness to consider the promotion of university-industry linkages as part of a
broader science, technology, and innovation policy program.
■ The challenge for governments is to select policy instruments that best serve
national needs, in consultation with key stakeholders. Facing limited budgets,
governments along with firms and universities must make complex choices between
collaboration in education or in research, between university collaboration with
established firms (marching grants, consortia) or new firms (spin-offs, incubators),
and between providing grants or developing science parks, among other factors.
■ While this policy brief has offered a review of the main policy options available, more
empirical evidence on the success of specific policy programs to support university-
industry collaborations in developing countries is needed.
THANKS