Many heads are better than one when it comes to research and development

Collaboration between industry and academia has been the source of many important scientific breakthroughs over the year. For example, a collaboration between pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University was responsible for the development of one of the most widely used Covid-19 vaccines.

But the value of such joint efforts goes beyond individual projects outcomes. “Fostering partnerships between industry and academia and industry is a critical element of our strategy,” says Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) director of industry programmes Dr Siobhan Roche. “It provides an opportunity for industry to gain access to a pipeline of researchers and innovation. Companies also get access to cutting-edge research skills which they can use to address challenges and plug knowledge gaps.”

That access allows them to take a long-term perspective on research and innovation, she adds. “They can set out a roadmap for new product development and get ahead of the game by having sight of the latest research. SFI runs a variety of programmes to support collaboration. In 2020, we supported nearly 3,000 collaborations involving almost 2,300 companies. Some €50 million worth of private investment is going into different projects.”

Brightest minds

Collaboration is very much a two-way street, according to Knowledge Transfer Ireland programme manager Siobhan Horan. “It is a great way for companies to get access to the brightest minds and great infrastructure,” she notes. “It also helps researchers remain up to date on the challenges facing industry. They also get opportunities to transfer their technology and ideas into companies and see them put into action in the marketplace.”

Knowledge Transfer Ireland is the national office that oversees the knowledge transfer system between third-level institutes and companies, she explains. “We take a national perspective on partnerships. For a lot of companies, it can appear quite complicated. We take the guesswork out if it and make it more accessible. We help companies take great research and bring it out into the market and commercialise it.”

“Research collaboration is really important,” says Skillnet Ireland executive director Tracey Donnery. “It facilitates a broader understanding of business challenges, produces actionable insights and solutions, and helps develop the skilled workforce that Ireland will need in future.”

She points to the Skillnet Ireland Industry Insights series of collaborative research studies as a practical example. “It has yielded great benefits and provided insights into current and future workforce challenges. The studies have looked at various issues like climate change and digitalisation and asked what they mean for the workforce and how we can future-proof it. They are helping business to benefit from academic knowledge and vice versa.”

Huawei is deeply committed to working in partnership with academia. “In Europe, we have 26 research centres with one in Ireland,” says industry engagement and collaboration manager Derek Collins. “Ireland punches above its weight and consistently receives support and investment for R&D here. Huawei will invest €80 million in Irish research and development over the next two years and over the past 18 months, we have invested €60 million in R&D.”

The pandemic has affected these efforts, however. “2020 was a year for the history books,” says Collins. “The sudden outbreak of Covid-19 put the health of everyone around the world in jeopardy and it impacted our work, our lives, our communities and the entire global economy. We do miss the nuances of face-to-face workshops with academics and the social fabric of meeting people over lunches and dinners to discuss ideas and new thinking. Our European and Irish team meetings took on the new dynamic of video meetings with various experiments of background pictures, dogs barking and children constantly seeking food. The pandemic has given us an opportunity to reflect on the life-work balances that people have to juggle, that is not obvious when only seeing colleagues in the workplace, or understanding that most academics also teach, so schedules can be quite rigid.”

And there have been some positive outcomes, according to Donnery. “Research collaboration has been strengthened during the pandemic from our perspective. Skillnet Ireland is based on a collaborative model and we had a record year for engagements in 2020. What has happened is an increased recognition that industry and academia need to work together to understand the rapid changes. We had some really good research proposals coming out for new working models and so on. What’s needed is research into what’s evolving and changing and how we can equip the workforce and business leaders to prepare for those changes.

World of work

“Skillnet is doing research into the new world of work with the University of Limerick,” she continues. “They have found that the pace of change has accelerated rapidly and that the role of customer experience employees in Ireland is undergoing significant transformation because of advances in new technology.”

Horan says it is a bit to soon to gauge the impact of the pandemic. “It’s hard to tell without proper metrics,” she says. “What we are seeing is that the level of engagements has held steady in comparison to the 2019 level. We know that there is quite an appetite from companies for collaboration.”

The impact has varied. “The IT sector was still about to progress research,” Horan notes. “The life sciences sector was most challenged due to restricted lab access and limitations on clinical trials. It really depended on the sector but the appetite for collaboration has held steady overall. The research system has adapted and has brought events online and so on. We are also seeing changes to the geographic spread of companies involved in the collaborations. MTU is reporting an increased number of collaborations with companies from outside of the south and southwest regions, for example.”

Another positive outcome came in the form of the results of the SFI Rapid Response Funding Call which provided funding to academia and industry partners to deliver innovative solutions to Covid-19 challenges. “The focus was on building connections between stakeholders to work together to identify solutions,” says Roche.

“We had a lot of companies coming to us saying they wanted to help in the Covid response. We ran the call in conjunction with the Health Research Board, the Irish Research Council, Enterprise Ireland and the IDA. Overall, €18 million was provided to 83 projects with more than 50 companies involved.”

Successful projects involved a variety of innovations including 3D printing of PPE, the development of the contact tracing app, new respirator technologies, and the development of Covid-19 diagnostics.

“One of the real benefits of the digital world is that makes it easier for researchers to move at pace to work together,” Roche adds.

And the overall impact may turn out to be positive. “I think from this pandemic we have learned that we need each other – academia, industry, Government, researchers; together we can achieve great things,” says Collins.