Deepening collaboration between academia and industry

Close and sustained collaboration between higher education institutions and industry is a fundamental pillar of Europe’s competitiveness. That was one of the key messages from a panel discussion on skills for competitiveness, organised by the EIT Higher Education Institutions Initiative (EIT HEI Initiative) at the Science|Business annual conference. In particular, the experts agreed that partnerships between higher education and industry need to outlive funding cycles - something the EIT HEI Initiative actively encourages by requiring that the projects it supports outline their long-term vision and action plan beyond their funding period. The expert panel, which was drawn from all walks of life, also pointed out the importance of fostering mobility between academia and industry, as well as creating an environment that rewards the cross-sectoral and brokering skills acquired by heightened mobility - an area where industry players can help by providing opportunities for placements, internships, consultancy opportunities, and the like.

The EIT HEI Initiative is a flagship programme of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and the only European funder solely focused on building the institutional capacity of HEIs to bring innovations to market. As Europe's largest innovation ecosystem, with a presence in every EU Member State and strong links with industry, the EIT aims to support HEIs at all stages of their innovation journey.

Enriching Europe’s innovation landscape

Since its launch just over three years ago, the EIT HEI Initiative has made significant strides in fostering partnerships between HEIs and the private sector. To date, the initiative has supported more than 350 HEIs and over 380 industry and non-academic partners across 42 countries, creating a diverse and dynamic innovation network. These collaborations have had a tangible impact on Europe’s innovation landscape, contributing to the creation of over 240 startups. Additionally, over 1,700 startups and scaleups received support through the projects. Taken together, those startups and scaleups collectively secured more than €14 million in investments. Last but not least, nearly 100,000 students, academics, and professionals have been trained in innovation and entrepreneurship. The latest Call for Proposals will fund additional projects with a total budget of around €56 million. The overwhelming interest in the Call - with almost 1,500 organisations applying from 55 countries, including more than 470 from industry - signals a strong and growing interest in closer ties between HEIs and the private sector.

With the session at the Science|Business annual conference, the EIT HEI Initiative sought to build on this burgeoning interest and bring a diversity of perspectives on the topic to the table. 

Panellists emphasised that mobility between academia and industry should not limit itself to talent in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) disciplines, but should also extend to the social sciences and humanities. Panellists underlined that talent from these fields can help with a plethora of issues, from ethics to regulation, and are generally undervalued. This point resonates strongly with the EIT HEI Initiative's ongoing commitment to interdisciplinarity and the development of transversal skills. 

Crossing the cultural chasm

The availability of work opportunities is not always the greatest challenge in these partnerships. Even when there is abundant supply, demand can be sparse. The panel discussed a cultural problem within higher education institutions which hinders greater mobility of talent between worlds. They suggested that reluctance amongst researchers and academics to engage with industry can be widespread and must be addressed through more innovation and entrepreneurship education within HEIs.

As for the sustainability of these partnerships, the experts stressed that it very much depends on all parties having a mutual understanding of the benefits of collaboration. They specified that building trust is just as important for long-term collaboration as having a setup profiting all parties. And while mutual understanding is a good start, it is certainly not enough to drive and measure the success of these partnerships. They discussed that quantitative impact metrics are useful and important, but do not capture everything. Indeed, aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship - such as the entrepreneurial mindset for example - often evade measurement.

All in all, the discussion was infused with optimism: models of durable and impactful partnerships between higher education and industry exist and are replicable. The panellists made it clear that the future of European competitiveness depends on the number and success rate of these partnerships. They emphasised that the infrastructure that underpins them requires attention and support, and the mindsets and cultures that permeate those structures need to evolve. The session was, for the most part, a validation of the work of the EIT HEI Initiative, but also offered an opportunity to reflect on where its future work can have the greatest impact. 

The EIT HEI Initiative team would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the panellists and those who attended the session and hopes to be able to organise more like it in the months and years to come.

Rewatch the session: