Getting started on a collaboration project

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A number of the barriers to collaboration between industry and Universities and Research Organisations (URIs) relate to perceptions and difficulties experienced before a collaboration begins. So what tools are available to help a business get started in the collaboration journey and resolve pain points in the pre-collaboration experience? 

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CSIRO’s Source IP

CSIRO operates a digital marketplace specifically created to help businesses and researchers collaborate by facilitating quick and easy contact. The marketplace was initially developed by IP Australia and now lists 10,000 inventions across 75 research organisations available for licensing by private sector partners. 

The site is essentially a patent marketplace and a great source of information for diligent businesses who recognise the value of collaborating and are aware of the platform and/or are motivated enough to find it.

Funding programs that encourage collaboration

There are a number of grant funding programs that provide competitive funding to projects that involve both industry and research partners. Some of these include:

• Innovation Connections under the Entrepreneurs' Infrastructure Program

• Linkage Projects from the Australian Research Council

• Industrial Transformation Research Program from the Australian Research Council

• Cooperative Research Centres Programs

• Accelerating Commercialisation

• Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities scheme

• CSIRO Kickstart

Accessing these programs can help take the sting out of the cost of collaboration. URIs will usually offer help with gaining government support through these schemes to reduce the effort required by industry partners to apply.

University tech transfer offices and industry engagement teams

Many URIs have established dedicated units or companies to facilitate technology transfer. They are referred to by a range of titles, including ‘business liaison offices’, ‘technology transfer units’ or ‘commercialisation arms’.

As well as coordinating patent applications, licensing university innovations to the commercial sector, and advising on the terms of research agreements, these offices are typically charged with coordinating industry access to research projects within the university.

Contact details for these teams is typically available on a URI’s website.

Industry Growth Centres

Industry Growth Centres are not-for-profit organisations, each focussed on a particular industry and led by a board of industry experts. One of the focus areas of the Industry Growth Centres is increasing collaboration and commercialisation in their sector. 

The Industry Growth Centres are:

• Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC)

• The Cyber Security Growth Centre, AustCyber

• The Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre, Food Innovation Australia Ltd (FIAL)

• The Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals Growth Centre, MTPConnect

• The Mining Equipment, Technology and Services Growth Centre, METS Ignited

What else would help?

While these solutions and others help to reduce some of the pre-collaboration pain points for industry, they don’t solve all the problems. Unfortunately, where a business is not aware of collaboration as an option or has difficulty finding the right organisation or researcher to help them, they may not seek out these methods. 

There is room for tools that help build awareness of collaboration as a strategy or help URIs to find and approach the industry partners (as opposed to the other way around). Such tools would help to increase collaboration and commercialisation of research to the benefit of both parties.