Recent Research: Building Bridges Between Industry, Academia and Across Disciplines

Research continues to point to universities and public research organizations as the engines of innovation. But how does one build bridges between academics and industry that result in formal research agreements and specific problem-solving approaches? Two French studies suggest academic research with links to industry and across disciplines enhance the transfer of knowledge, focusing on directly applicable outcomes.

Factors Affecting University-Industry R&D Collaboration

In Factors Affecting University-Industry R&D Collaboration: The importance of screening and signalling, authors Roberto Fontana, Aldo Geuna, and Mirelle Matt identify common characteristics of industrial firms with formal R&D agreements and successful collaborations with universities and other public research organizations. Their findings include:

• Larger firms (over 1,000 employees) tend to collaborate with public research institutes.
• Firms already engaged in intense R&D activities have a higher propensity to collaborate and a much higher rate of concluding formal R&D agreements. The authors note these firms have built the capacity to successfully absorb and utilize publicly generated research.
• Companies that actively screen publications and databases have a greater likelihood to sign R&D agreements.
• Firms that signal their competencies by outsourcing R&D and seeking patent protection for innovations engage in higher levels of collaboration.

The study, prepared by the Research Centre in Economics and Management in Strasbourg, considers survey responses of nearly 460 innovative small and medium-sized enterprises from seven EU countries. Using econometric analysis, the authors narrow down the significant company characteristics related to cooperation and formal collaborations with public research organizations.

Why Do Academic Scientists Engage in Interdisciplinary Research?

In Why Do Academic Scientists Engage in Interdisciplinary Research?, Nicolas Carayol and Thuc Nguyen Thi use empirical analysis to examine the characteristics related to cross-disciplinary collaborations. The data indicate:

• Connections with industry either through funding or co-publication increases the propensity to engage in interdisciplinary activities.
• Traditional academic career incentives thwart interdisciplinary research, particularly for junior academics who have not secured tenure.
• The laboratory environment affects interdisciplinary research with smaller laboratories tending to increase interdisciplinary collaborations. Laboratories with multidisciplinary teams or older, tenured professors also produced more interdisciplinary research.
• A higher ratio of post-graduate researchers within a laboratory reduces cross-disciplinary research, again pointing to the negative impact of traditional academic career incentives.

The study from the Research Centre in Economics and Management relies on data from more than 900 researchers and nearly 80 laboratories at the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg. The authors note their study offers policymakers clues to what encourages interdisciplinary research but warn that their conclusions should be used cautiously, pending further analysis.

Both studies point to the importance of private industry to building the bridge for successful knowledge transfer from academia. From the firm perspective, only those companies focused on capacity building become actively involved in public research partnerships. From the academic perspective, links with industry promote interdisciplinary research focused on near-term applications.

Factors Affecting University-Industry R&D Collaboration: The importance of screening and signalling is available at: http://cournot2.u-strasbg.fr/users/beta/publications/2005/2005-07.pdf

Why do Academic Scientists Engage in Interdisciplinary Research? is available at: http://cournot2.u-strasbg.fr/users/beta/publications/2004/2004-17.pdf