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Collaboration between academia and industry is essential to promoting innovation and economic growth. As industry demands continue to change, research information management systems and centralised profiling tools can help institutions position themselves as valuable partners in innovation by maximising the visibility of their research. During a Times Higher Education webinar, held in partnership with Digital Science, a panel of experts explored how universities can use technology to showcase their research assets and build mutually beneficial partnerships with industry.

“The importance of industry engagement with research is how it enriches and augments the research impact at the institution,” said Derek Newton, assistant vice-president of innovation, partnerships and entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto in Canada. “Often, it enriches the types of research projects our students can access and ensures that they’re employment-ready at the end of their project.”

Christopher Rowe, executive director for industry collaborations at Vanderbilt University in the US, highlighted the significance of understanding industry partners’ needs and how universities can “shorten the distance between industry and the researchers by being a matchmaker”. He discussed leadership’s responsibility to create an institution-wide culture of innovation and build sustainable relationships with industry. 

Mike Kagioglou, deputy vice-chancellor of planning, research and innovation at De Montfort University in the UK, said that universities need to be flexible in the way they engage with industry as companies come with different perspectives, aspirations and maturity levels. 

The panellists discussed the role of research information management systems in enhancing the discoverability of research outputs and helping industry navigate university systems, which can be complex and decentralised. “Higher education institutions can be insular, but they need to do more outreach,” said Jeff Agnoli, senior liaison for strategic partnerships with the Ohio Innovation Exchange, Ohio State University in the US. “The platforms we use to promote and curate our resources are absolutely essential.”

Kagioglou spoke about the challenges of managing the variety of research data produced at universities. “It’s difficult for all of that information to be in one place. That’s where I see the value of research management systems – in trying to pull together everything that exists in an organisation and present it in a way that can address very specific areas of strategy,” he said.

“Research information management systems are specialist tools that are designed to collect and showcase the breadth and depth of a researcher’s expertise,” said Kate Byrne, senior vice-president of product, academic and publishing at Digital Science. “Collecting that data once will let you reuse it for so many things. But in this space, it’s about bringing a researcher’s CV to life and showing the relevance of the work that they’ve done,” she added.

“Storytelling around successful partnerships is critical to growing the nature and number of partnerships we have,” said Agnoli. “Telling those stories is wonderful for encouraging faculty members at your institution to think about these types of partnerships and helping companies who haven’t yet engaged with the university hear and understand some of the positive impacts.”

The panel:

• Jeff Agnoli, senior liaison for strategic partnerships with the Ohio Innovation Exchange, Ohio State University
• Kate Byrne, senior vice-president of product, academic and publishing, Digital Science
• Mike Kagioglou, deputy vice-chancellor of planning, research and innovation, De Montfort University
• Derek Newton, assistant vice-president of innovation, partnerships and entrepreneurship, University of Toronto
• Christopher Rowe, executive director for industry collaborations, Vanderbilt University

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