“It is inevitable that the new knowledge is not only created at universities, but also transferred from universities to society, or more precisely to industry (BRENNENRAEDTS et al., 2006, p.1)“
The rationale behind Industry-Science Relations (ISR) is to transfer knowledge between the parties. Industry-science relationship is considered to be a very important part of the innovation system, and it represents one of the crucial factors in national innovation capacity. Some studies in developed economies show that a significant proportion of the products and processes that are currently sold and used could not have been developed without academic research (MANSFIELD, BEISE and STAHL in RADAS and VEHOVEC, 2007). Both industry and academia can benefit from this relationship. LOOF and BROSTROM (in RADAS and VEHOVEC, 2007) showed that university-industry collaboration has a significant and positive influence on innovative activity of collaborating firms.
Therefore, the nature of the knowledge that is being transferred is very important in this research. The nature of knowledge has many dimensions. According to BRENNENRAEDTS (et al., 2006, p.2) there are 3 most important dimensions.
1. distinction between explicit1 and tacit knowledge
The nature of explicit knowledge is that it can be transferred without the presence of people (e.g. patents, scientific articles, books, et cetera). Tacit knowledge however, is embodied in people and cannot be transferred without them. Not all tacit knowledge can be translated to explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge, due to its non-codifiable nature has to be transferred through ‘intimate human interactions’ (TSANG in BRENNENRAEDTS et al., 2006, p.2).
2. multidisciplinary vs. mono-disciplinary research
Knowledge has traditionally been developed by specialists who organize in disciplines. But at the edge of knowledge development, the boundaries between such disciplines are often fuzzy, and combinations of knowledge from different disciplines are necessary to achieve progress
3. basic, experimental and applied nature of the research
Basic research is aimed at gaining insight into the world surrounding us. Applied research focuses on the creation of actual knowledge that can be used, for example in artefacts. A last category of knowledge can be identified as experimental. Experimental research tries to identify whether a certain variable has an effect on another variable.
We would like to give you deeper understanding of the different channels of ISR, so we discuss the items in some more details.
Table 3: Different categories and forms of Industry Science Relations
Source: BONDERS et. al. in BRENNENRAEDTS, Reginald, et al. The different channels of university- industry knowledge transfer: Empirical evidence from Biomedical Engineering. Eindhoven University of Technology, 2006. p.4
Scientific publications
Publications Co-publications
Consulting of publications Participation in conference
professional networks & boards
Participation in conferences Participation in fairs
Exchange in professional organizations
Participation in boards of knowledge institutions Participation i n governmental organizations Graduates Mobility of people Mobility from public knowledge institutes to industry
Mobility from industry to public knowledge institutes Trainees
Double appointments
Temporarily exchange of personnel Other informal contacts/ networks Networks based on friendship
Alumni societies Other boards Joint R&D projects Presentation of research
Cooperation in R&D Supervision of a trainee or Ph.D. student Financing of Ph.D. research
Sponsoring of research
Shared laboratories
Sharing of facilities Common use of machines
Common location or building (Science parks) Purchase of prototypes
Contract education or training Cooperation in education Retraining of employees
Working students
Influencing curriculum of university programs Providing scholarships
Sponsoring of education Contract research and advisement Contract-based research
Contract-based consultancy
Patent texts
IPR Co-patenting
Licenses of university-held patents
Copyright and other forms of intellectual property Spin-offs and entrepreneurship Spin-offs
Start ups
Incubators at universities Stimulating entrepreneurship
As we are looking at the different forms of ISR we can divided these to some specific
“pools” that are described in OECD (2005, p.41):
1. Innovation
Innovation includes transfer of knowledge and knowledge production itself.
Publications (Scientific publications, Co-publications, Consulting of publications) Knowledge becomes public and accessible for many people just by writing down and publicizing research. This is only the case of explicit knowledge that can be transferred such way. So there should be will of companies and university to invest in personnel able to
‘translate’ the explicit knowledge in the publication to an actual application (BRENNENRAEDTS et al., 2006, p.5). When making knowledge/information public, it must be remembered that once results are published there is no longer any means to effectively protect them, which may seriously limit the possibilities for commercial exploitation.
Intellectual property rights (Patent texts, co-patenting, licenses of university-held patents, copyright and other forms of intellectual property)
Intellectual property rights (IPR) have the intention to stimulate innovation by temporarily monopolizing new knowledge and publicizing it.
The objective of IPR is to protect the right of a copyright author in his work and at the same time allow the general public to access his creativity. IPR maintains this balance by putting in place time-limits on the author’s means of controlling a particular work. The law that regulates the creation, use and control of the protected work is popularly known as Intellectual Property Law (MADHAVAN, 2006). The good example of IPR is ‘Copyright’, that is one of the most known and oldest from IPR. Copyright protects the form of expression of works set forth in a tangible medium. Protection is granted to authors for their lifetime plus 70 years. Copyrighted works may be owned by authors or the University, depending on the circumstances of the work’s development.
Contract research and advisement (Contract-based research, contract-based consultancy)
In contract research, the business pays the university researchers to undertake a specific piece of research on its behalf. The business will receive the results of the research but is not actively involved in the work other than in commissioning it. Companies often use
contract research for specific pieces of near-market research and testing, and universities will tend to charge at least the full economic cost for this work. Consultancy takes the form of expert advice or analysis services. In practice the difference between consultancy and contract research is blurred – but the general distinction is that in consultancy the academic provides advice to the business rather than actually conducting research
“This leads to a flow of knowledge from the academy to the industry and a flow of capital vice versa. It can be argued that the industry will only outsource research if it is not their core-business and can be conducted cheaper elsewhere. Some problems can arise using these channels, as a result of the different incentive structures. The industry wants the answer to their question to be exclusively for them, academic researchers want to transform their research into publications“(BRENNENRAEDTS et al., 2006, p.6).
Cooperation in R&D (Joint R&D projects, presentation of research, supervision of a trainee or Ph.D. student, financing of PhD research, sponsoring of research)
When we are thinking about ‘cooperation in R&D’ we are not thinking only about some flow of money and knowledge from industry to university and vice versa. There is a vision of long-term relationship (cooperation) in our minds. This cooperation is more typical for big companies, because of their financial resources. They have better opportunity to invest money in research projects that are expected to be profitable in long term period. These companies have more experiences and have better ability to understand the research at the university and are able to offer something (knowledge, facilities...) to the university (BRENNENRAEDTS et al., 2006, p.6).
2. Entrepreneurial culture, entrepreneurship
Undoubtedly, universities and research institutions are far more entrepreneurial than they used to be. They patent more, licence their technologies more strategically, invest in incubators and science parks, and increasingly provide training and services to help their budding entrepreneurs. This business orientation is a response; on the one hand, to market changes in high-technology sectors especially in the fields of biomedical and information technology and to continuing budgetary pressures which have forced laboratories to look for alternative sources of funding, on the other (CALLAN, 200- ).
Spin-offs and entrepreneurship (Spin-offs, start ups, incubators at universities, Stimulating entrepreneurship)
"Entrepreneurship is inherently a process of moving a thought into action or application“(SMELSTOR in RANSOM, 2008).
Spin-offs are generally understood to be small, new technology-based firms whose intellectual capital originated in universities or other public research organizations. Spin-off is a good way how to get university-generated inventions to the market. The goal of Spin-offs is to capitalize knowledge. They are regarded as hubs that transfer research results into new products, new processes or new services (EGELN et al., 2004)
Firm (Spin-off) uses intellectual property and develops it till they reach the final stage of production (products or service that can be brought to the market). Spin-offs are usually responsible for business activities associated with commercialization. The process of developing in this case can be far more profitable than for example licenses’ sale (SOUKOP, 2007, p.1).
There is a small number of spin-offs that become very high-profile companies: Silicon Graphics and Genentech, both of which originated at Stanford University (US), is good example. The success of these stellar firms enhances the reputation of their parent, helping to attract students, faculty and funding (CALLAN).
CALLAN thinks that despite the increasing number of research spin-offs, they will remain a small sub-population of new entrepreneurial firms because of :
• not all academic disciplines are equally able to generate new firms(spin-offs are mainly in the biomedical and the information technology fields)
• spin-off firms tend to come from a small number of top research institutions(especially because institutions do not generate enough intellectual property to justify a professional technology commercialisation staff)
• many other forms of technology transfer and commercialisation compete with spin- offs
Where could Spin-off originate from? GEORGES and ROMME see differences in the spin-offs’ development in western world, that have more resources and are exposed to other
intellectual property regimes than universities in for example Africa and Asia. Spin-offs also originate mainly from the sciences instead of the arts and the social sciences; and within the sciences most start-ups tend to arise from the life sciences (e.g. biotechnology, pharmacy, medical devices) (MEYER; SHANE in GEORGES and ROMME, 2008, p.21).
“Although increasing the numbers of spin-offs is generally beneficial to less successful regions, it is not necessarily transformatory, because of the small scale of the spin- offs and the significant size of the regional economic problem“(BENNEWORTH and CHARLES, p.14)
University incubator is a “meeting place between the traditions based on technological knowledge, on the one hand, and business experience on the other” (STRID and BIRGERSON, p.1).
There is a concentration of several tools of support of starting entrepreneurs (especially university students) in one place (building, area). For example: privilege lease of offices, system of education and professional consultancy (in respect of possible grant, financing or preparing prospectus etc.) for small businesses. We can see this entrepreneurial support as the whole system of relationships, networks of people and artefacts that make up an innovative regional system of places.
STRID and BIRGERSON look at the university incubator as a space built to frame interchanging activities between the space provided mainly for the purpose of developing new knowledge and the space provided mainly for business development. They consider university incubator to be “linear process” with the focus on how to coordinate and make effective actions in time. They describe it by the following activities:
1. Technological ideas and skills are facilitated into the incubator and evaluated according to their business potentials.
2. Technological ideas are framed to be transformed into a business form with the help of the facilities provided by the incubator.
3. An entrepreneurial business starts to take place within the incubator and become part of its interaction context.
STRID and BIRGERSON think that the whole region functions as an incubator as well. This kind of ‘incubator’ is not as visible as a building and to incubate is built onto the social and economic workings of the region.
The success of the firms that come from incubators does not have to be high. The 50%
is considered to be the very good value and success. It might give us doubts about the convenience of incubators. Moreover the number of employees in these firms is not very high but the firms that continue in business are involved in the local business community, vacancies they offer are stable (unlike vacancies that are created by “mobile “foreign investment) and region can benefit from it.
3. Human capital
Human capital constitutes an intangible asset that can enhance or support productivity, innovation, and employability and contribute to different types social benefits (such as greater community and social participation, higher social cohesion, lower criminality and so on.) In other words human capital includes “knowledge, skills, competencies and other attributes embodied in individuals that are relevant to economic activity” (OECD, 2000, p.33)
Participation in conference, Professional networks and boards (conferences, participation in fairs, Exchange in Professional organisations, participation in boards of knowledge institutions, participation in governmental organizations)
“Academic researchers are often encouraged to visit conferences and workshops. It offers the researchers the advantage to be able to communicate directly with many (international) specialists. When speaking at a conference, scholars receive direct feedback from those specialists, enhancing the quality of their work. Moreover, conferences and workshops can also be very important in creating social networks of people within a certain field of science“(BRENNENRAEDTS et al., 2006, p.5).
To network professionally is about seeking new people systematically and cultivating relationships to achieve professional goals. “Networking is essential for professions, facilitating communication among people in related activities (e.g. primary care, research or education) “(BAINESb and HALE, 2004, p.258-259).
Informal networks/contacts have the important role because first contact between universities and industry often originates just from personal networks (BONGERS et al. in BRENNENRAEDTS et al., 2006, p.5).
Mobility of people (Graduates, mobility from public knowledge institutes to industry, mobility from industry to public knowledge institutes, trainees, double appointments, temporarily Exchange of personnel)
Mobility is a key part of innovation system and it is the way of transferring tacit knowledge (REHÁK in BUČEK, 2006, p.85). In other words mobility of people is a flow of embodied knowledge (GAULT, 2005, p.6).
Cooperation in education (contract education or training, retraining of employees, working students, influencing curriculum of university programs, providing scholarships, sponsoring of education)
Although education is one of the core-businesses of the academe, it can also be used to educate employees of the industry. On the other hand industry can exerts influence on the curriculum. It can help the university to stay in touch with (local) economy and provide itself with a well-educated labour market (BRENNENRAEDTS et al., 2006, p.6)-
3 TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
In this chapter we would like to bring you a closer view on transfers of knowledge at The University of Oxford in The United Kingdom. This prominent European university is according to us closer to the milieu in Europe compared especially to American universities.
For example Stanford University that Silicon Valley come from and also many famous firms (Cisco Systems, Google, Hewlett-Packard etc.) has become the place of starting new companies that are more global as regional. Of course that has a big impact on Stanford’s region but we think The University of Oxford’s region is far closer to Slovak and European milieu and environment. We are thinking about concrete space and structure of economy in regions. This approach could help us to continue in this work in the future as well.