Identifying Roles in University-Industry Research Partnerships

• Published in: Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers p. 26.876.1
• Main Author: Wilcox, Lynette F
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Atlanta American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE 14.06.2015
• Subjects: Partnerships; Research facilities; Roles
• DOI: 10.18260/p.24213

Identifying Roles in University-Industry Partnerships ABSTRACTThe term “university-industry partnership” is quickly becoming an over-generalized term used todescribe many different ways academia and industry engage with one another. There isincreasing national interest in the U.S. for developing stronger connection points and reducingbarriers to collaboration between academia and industry participating in partnerships. However,the ambiguity of the term “university-industry partnership” makes it difficult to apply research-based recommendations for improving partnering processes. A clear distinction of the types ofroles and relationships within given organizational settings should be specified when using theterm “university-industry partnership”.The purpose of this study is to identify the roles of “university-affiliated” participants and“industry-affiliated” participants in university-industry partnerships. The various roles are thendescribed in the context of the relationships between the academic and industrial participants. Aliterature review is conducted to identify these roles and relationships within the context of sixcommonly practiced mechanisms for university-industry partnerships at research-intensiveuniversities: 1) University Research Centers, 2) Research-Technology Parks 3) TechnologyTransfer/Sponsored Research Offices 4) Industry Advisory Boards 5) IndustrialEmployment/Career Services 6) Vendor relations. For each mechanism, examples ofrelationships, challenges associated with each type of relationship, and potentialrecommendations for future directions of the relationships are obtained from the literature. Theresult of this study is a role-based theoretical model of university-industry partnerships.A role-based theoretical model can be useful for researchers and practitioners to clearly discernthe types of relationships that are relevant to the work they conduct in university-industrypartnerships. One key factor in improving university-industry partnerships is understanding thenature of the roles and relationships one is trying to improve. Clarifying these roles will behelpful for moving forward with a more focused research agenda for university-industrypartnerships.