IFERP Industry-Institution Interaction Programmes
Industry-institution collaborations include a wide range of purposes, where the objectives of the respective partners are based on different incentives to collaborate. For collaborations involving academics institutions and industrial partners, the most important reasons for entering into a collaboration include:
- To complement skills, knowledge and technologies to advance research and Development.
- To obtain access to resources that is only available from specific partners (eg, clinical research).
- To broaden the scope of the innovation process.
- To lawfully and collaboratively exploit existing intellectual property (IP) through the inclusion of specific skills.
- To achieve critical mass to handle complex projects.
How Does IFERP Facilitate Productive Industry- Institution Collaborations
In a successful industry- institution collaboration, there is a mutual understanding of what motivates the other partner. The classic view of the industry vs. institution partnership is that the academic researcher “goes for publication” and the company “goes for patent.
However, one does not exclude the other. In order to achieve these two ambitions, we at IFERP believe that it is important to find common points of interest in a specific area, identify activities where partners need each other and agree on the modalities according to which each partner protects its own interests (for example, often focusing on publication and intellectual property rights).
After facilitating numerous such partnerships, we at IFERP have found that alignment of expectations is essential, for which a good foundation can be laid during the construction phase. The key for success is recognizing and appreciating the different drivers and motivations as early as possible during the working together to create the right mindset.
