A new model for university/industry collaboration in Europe, maybe?

Science|Business Senior Editor Nuala Moran.

This sounds like the sort of scheme that would serve European companies very well, giving them access to leading edge science, while allowing issues around scale-up, manufacturing, markets, commercialisation and all the other constraints surrounding technology transfer to seep into the academic consciousness.

As it happens, the model for this innovative laboratory belongs to one of Europe’s most important science and technology-based companies, BASF. According to BASF – the world’s largest chemicals company – its new Advanced Research Initiative, which had its formal opening this week, represents an innovative model for academic/industrial collaboration that is designed specifically to drive new frontiers of scientific discovery.

This seems like a win/win. Academic scientists get to do basic research, and by closely observing their progress, BASF gains insights into where particular fields are heading.

The decisive difference between this model of collaboration and similar schemes that have the same ambition is its more integrated nature. BASF researchers from Germany are working closely with the academic research teams of its university partner, easing scientific exchange on the projects, as well as fostering broader interaction.

Get them early

BASF notes that this arrangement also gives the students the opportunity to benefit from a close contact with, and early exposure to, industry. Academic freedom is seemingly not encroached, while at the same time commercialisation prospects are not compromised: Under the BASF scheme faculty members have the freedom to distribute and publish findings from the Research Initiative, while BASF will have the opportunity to further develop discoveries and innovations for possible commercialisation.

Since BASF first proposed the model in October last year ten postdoctoral students from the United States, France, Italy, Switzerland and China have started working at the labs of its university partner on a variety of projects.

For example, they are studying the interaction between bacteria and surfaces under various conditions and developing new types of surfaces in order to elucidate structure-property relationships with respect to these interactions. Another project involves the use colloidal techniques to develop novel formulations of pharmaceuticals with higher bioavailability.

Over the next five years, with the direct funding from BASF, the students will pursue further projects in applied physics and mathematics, chemical biology, systems biology, bioengineering and materials science.

While the BASF Advanced Research Initiative is based in one department, it will have strong ties with students, departments and schools throughout the university. In addition, it has established relationships with other research groups at nearby universities.

“We welcome the opportunity to work in cooperation with one of the world’s most respected and prolific universities,” said Andreas Kreimeyer, Executive Research Director and board member of BASF at the launch of the Advanced Research Initiative.

The shame for Europe is that the BASF Advanced Research Initiative opened its doors this week not in a German, or even a European university, but at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

“This type of progressive research association with a major industrial leader is a new model for Harvard, and one that we hope to emulate and repeat,” said Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Dean, SEAS, John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor, and Professor of Physics.

Let’s hope the model will also inspire similar initiatives at European universities.