RIS4CIVIS Module 3 - Reinforcing Academia-Business R&I Cooperation

Following a benchmarking and an intensive tandem process, the Module 3 chose to reinforce academia-business R&I cooperation by working on two case studies

1. A CIVIS Innovation Framework will identify university-specific and common challenges and propose joint actions to increase innovation capacity in areas such as the transfer of technology. Researchers will benefit from better support structures and access to training, helping them unlock the economic and/or societal value of their research results.
2. CIVIS Network for Start-up Ecosystems will identify issues and challenges on a regional level which we can address collectively as an Alliance. Researchers and other university stakeholders will benefit from an upgraded support structure when starting a company. This could eventually include a wide range of consulting services as well as joint entrepreneurial trainings programmes for researchers, students and staff.

For both case studies, our plan is to develop matrices that serve as guidelines for formulating strategies which are applicable for each CIVIS member university. The benchmarking phase highlighted the diversity of the CIVIS member universities in their approach to business-academia R&I cooperation, so we will first define a common understanding of innovation strategies and start-up ecosystems. The guidelines will also help to:

• Identify topics of common interest
• Foster inter-university cooperation among the CIVIS members to tackle specific challenges regarding innovation capacity and (regional) start-up ecosystems
• Provide the basis for recommendations to policy makers

Work to develop and test these two sets of strategic guidelines is already underway. As part of the RIS4CIVIS Week, which took place in Stockholm in October 2022, innovation experts from across the CIVIS Alliance participated in a series of Module 3 workshops:

• Defining an Innovation Strategy: After a short theoretical introduction, participants mapped the aspects that should be considered when creating an innovation strategy. We agreed on a matrix that can be used to create innovation strategies. The matrix will now be tested at university level, while we also use it to identify topics of common interest to underpin the innovation strategies of the CIVIS member universities.
• Building/creating a start-up ecosystem: Participants discussed and agreed on a matrix that can serve as a framework when drafting a strategy for creating/improving start-up ecosystems. The matrix shall now be tested at university level to evaluate its relevance and applicability to what our members are doing, and to define specific issues and challenges that we can work on together.
• Start-up related trainings: Inspired by the phases of start-up development, participants defined the challenges, needs and expectations of students, researchers, or alumni. We then identified training programmes and workshops to meet these needs, before assessing whether these could be offered at CIVIS level. These will serve as a starting point for further reflections as we jointly identify basic start-up training needs and experiment with joint trainings, where possible.

This last podcast addresses the theme of cooperation between academia and business in terms of Research and Innovation, as well as its main challenges.

We are pleased to present our last speaker, Jan Middendorf, the Coordinator of the Excellence Strategy of the University of Tübingen and module leader for RIS4CIVIS, on this issue. Jan has developed training and workshop programmes and defined a matrix for creating a start-up ecosystem to reinforce the bonds between these key actors. 

RIS4CIVIS modules leaders have addressed briefing notes to advocate decision-makers on relevant guidelines based on their experiences and main findings. Briefing notes give decision-makers knowledge and provide recommendations on key actions areas such as Open science, Human Capital, Infrastructure, Civil Society or Industry.