The Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) are undertaking an Research
Councils UK (RCUK) sponsored study. The study aims to obtain a deeper understanding
of companies' motives for collaborating with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs),
such as how and why they collaborate and what benefits they think come from collaborations.
This will help understand what the benefits are and how they may be measured or
evaluated.
It is expected that this study will produce information to inform policy, leading
to better targeted policy interventions. RCUK also wants to use this information
to encourage more and potentially better collaborations between companies and HEIs.
Around 20 companies will be interviewed for the study, ranging from large global
companies to UK small and medium enterprises (SMEs), who are involved with 'research
based' collaborations with HEIs through, for example, RCUK-funded collaborative
research, postgraduate training and strategic partnerships. In order to identify
and develop awareness of what makes a company decide to work with an HEI, businesses
which have experience in working with HEIs will be brought together with those who
don't.
The study follows on from a series of CIHE studies focusing on the details of
how universities and business interact. The most recent study, the
CIHE/CBR report on Universities, Business and Knowledge Exchange, set out the
findings of a case-based study of knowledge exchange processes involving more than
thirty UK companies and UK universities.
A recent CIHE newsletter said of this study "this is ground-breaking work and
should help our universities, Research Councils and the Government be better informed
and adapt their approaches so as to maximise the potential for economic and social
impact. The work will also inform our businesses and spread good practice".