Our recent whitepaper, ‘Catalyzing Collaboration: How Research Information Management Systems Drive Academic-Industry Partnerships’ explores the core benefits of industry collaboration and outlines how universities can use technology to build stronger, more visible partnerships. The following blog post is part of a series of extracts from that paper.
Industry-academic collaboration has become an essential driver of innovation, economic growth, and solutions to societal challenges. By leveraging the strengths of both universities and the private sector, these partnerships can facilitate the translation of cutting-edge research into real-world applications, creating new products, services, and technologies that benefit society.
For mission-driven universities seeking to attract the next generation of scientists and researchers – who in turn will be seeking to build the skills that will help them address societal challenges and find meaningful work – the ability to demonstrate this real-world impact is of critical importance.
Not only is driving research central to the mission of academic institutions and research organizations, it’s also big business. In the US, higher education institutions spent a total of $97.8 billion on R&D in FY2022, 55% of which was financed by federal government sources. Attracting investment, whether from government funders or private partnerships, is vital to sustaining research, attracting talent, and generating impact. In the EU, government budget allocations for R&D (GBARD) reached €123.7 billion in 2023, accounting for 0.73% of GDP. This represents a 5.3% increase from the previous year and a 54.8% rise compared to a decade ago. Over a third of this funding supports general university funds, underscoring the vital role of public investment in driving research and innovation within higher education institutions across Europe. The UK’s Autumn Budget 2024 has allocated £20.4 billion for R&D in 2025-26, including £6.1 billion for core research.
As well as seeing a growth in funding, the past decade has seen a huge shift in the attitudes of faculty and researchers.
“I came to the University of Toronto 12 years ago, and when I first came here there was a lot of hesitancy amongst faculty about why we work with industry. Questions were being asked around what the value was, and how this was aligned or misaligned with the academic mission of a public university,” says Derek Newton, Assistant Vice-President, Innovation, Partnerships and Entrepreneurship at the Innovations & Partnerships Office (IPO), University of Toronto.
“We’ve seen an enormous increase at the university in the number of researchers, particularly newer faculty members, who are interested in engaging and working with industry. Researchers at the university are interested in learning how to best connect with potential industry partners, the programs that support industry:academic collaborations and how to expand their research impacts.”
This rapid shift in attitudes toward industry partnerships reflects the growing recognition of their critical role in addressing global challenges and driving economic impact. By embracing collaboration with the private sector, universities can enhance their research capabilities, create new opportunities for students and faculty, and deliver tangible benefits to society. As industry-academic collaborations continue to evolve, they will be essential in meeting the demands of an increasingly interconnected, innovation-driven world.
Want to learn how leading universities are leveraging research information systems to drive impactful partnerships? Download our new whitepaper, Catalyzing Collaboration: How Research Information Management Systems Drive Academic-Industry Partnerships, for in-depth insights and case studies.