Barriers to university-industry collaboration in an academic university department in London, United Kingdom

Abstract

Purpose University-industry collaboration yields numerous advantages resulting in potential benefits in funding research and innovation. Despite the numerous benefits, there are various perceived disadvantages of such collaboration especially in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry in prominent academic institutes in London, UK. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes of the academics and clinicians in an academic university department towards industry collaboration. Design/methodology/approach Two methods were applied, quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative method used an online questionnaire of four-point Likert-Scale, the link of which was emailed to 80 members of the department with a response rate of 32%. The qualitative method included a one-to-one interview with eight researchers from the department to garner in-depth information on the attitude of researchers in child and adolescent psychiatry towards industry collaboration. Findings The online questionnaire was completed by 26 researchers, the vast majority perceived industry as biased to favour their product and as having a bad or mixed reputation. One-on-one interviews with eight prominent researchers allowed us to share their perception and attitude towards industry collaboration, although the researchers believe that availability of funding was the major advantage of working in collaboration with industry, many did not know how to access such grants and some raised concerns about industry’s record of presenting partial results. Research limitations/implications Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further. Practical implications This paper will shed light on how prominent researchers perceive collaboration with industry. Originality/value Although researchers are very reluctant to collaborate with industry because of its public opinion and sometimes unethical and lack of integrity among the industry, with rigorous ethical guidelines and policies, the pharmaceutical industry can be a potential and significant source of funding of high-quality research and innovation.

State of university-industry collaboration in quantity surveying profession in Nigeria

“…Various studies have also provided the evidence of the benefits of UIC. These have been documented in form of: sponsored research which eventually developed into practical application (Mirza et al, 2020); potential financial reward of patents and licences that result from the commercialization of academic research (Caulfield and Ogbogu, 2015); knowledge transfer between universities and industrial firms (especially to compensate for low investment in R&D often found in developing countries) (Garcia et al, 2020); gaining access to research funding (Grimaldi and vonTunzelmann, 2002) and expansion of university networks (Murray, 2002;Mirza et al, 2020) among others. University and industry play crucial role in sustaining national innovation systems.…”

“…University and industry play crucial role in sustaining national innovation systems. Collaboration between university and industry is seeing to be fundamental to aptitudes improvement, generation, obtaining and appropriation of skill, and the advancement of business enterprise (Mirza et al, 2020). In this regard, it has been demonstrated that coordinated effort with university significantly expanded the inclination of industry to present new discoveries and patent.…”

“…As such, specific industrysponsored university research is often developed to solve a particular problem. Another source of finance to universities is the potential financial reward of patents and licences from the commercialization of academic researches (Mirza et al, 2020). Vicente-Oliva et al (2015) identified the lack of investment in R&D activities within the construction sector as a resultant effect of low absorptive capacity of research outcomes.…”

“…Lundberg and Oberg (2021) described UIC as the motor for innovation. While university is seeing as knowledge producer, transmitter and diffuser (Sutrisna et al, 2021); the industry is seeing as the converter of research and innovation into viable products and services (Mirza et al, 2020).…”

Systems Evaluation of University-Industry Collaboration Efficiency in Iran: Current Situation and Proposed Policy Framework

“…Some of these barriers have been explored -lack of information on how to access industry, intellectual property issues, university view (poor reputation) of industry collaboration experiences (e.g. financial gain is industry's only interest) (Mirza et al, 2020), cultural differences between organizations including secrecy of industry vs. open dissemination by university academics, lack of trust, and lack of understanding of university norms by industry staff and vice versa (Arenaz & Gonzalez, 2018;Kuwashima, 2018;Meissner et al, 2018). There are also structural barriers which refers to deficiency of TTO in universities as their members lack the required skills to link firms and academia and also the lack of successful entrepreneurial experiences (Siegel et al, 2004).…”