Management-Driven University-Industry Interaction for Successful Impact

Paper in proceeding, 2016

Abstract An organisational model that allows operations to be directed has been developed and has been in use for a number of years. It has now been developed further to highlight a process that will permit the successful impact of university-industry interaction to be sustained. With the experience of agreed parameters, or KPIs, their interrelationship and what each parameter is driving can now be evaluated. The rationale behind the model can be divided into three parts:  Monitor and follow up a number of parameters, including satisfaction, collaboration and strategies (KPIs)  Promote greater understanding of a common vision and goals using workshops and oth-er means  Encourage research groups to work with a vision aimed at desired impacts and to visu-alise how far the group has come in the process The long-term ambition is to develop a strategy and build up a vision regarding the impact academ-ics would like to see in the future based on their research and education. Close relations with indus-try and society are an essential part of the process in order to incorporate relevance into research and teaching activities and by doing so meet the expectations of industry and society. The key to the process is not just conventional deliverables, such as bibliometric data, but also the impact of the research, including issues related to attitudes, standards and rules set by society. A research group’s potential to work towards desired impacts requires the involvement of the whole group in the task of defining the aims and visions behind the research. To achieve this, our original organisational model has been developed to establish the strategy and goals and to stimulate internal communication even further. The underlying concept is to visualise how far the group has come in the process. This can be described in the following steps:  Input  Activities  Output  Outcome  Impact The results of the improved organisational model show the strength of each KPI and how the KPIs are related to each other. The results are used as key input for the strategy employed within the or-ganisation and the research impact and goals are visualised in a transparent way. The preliminary results show that management-driven university-industry interaction and engagement with re-searchers will lead to improved knowledge transfer and ultimately greater impact.