Australian industries urged to pursue university collaborations

Over 100 business and research leaders gathered at Melbourne Town Hall recently for the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce Forum “Perfect Match: The endless possibilities of industry-research collaboration.”

In holding the forum, the Chamber sought to stimulate Australian firms, which it reported as among the lowest collaborators with public research or higher education institutions among OECD countries, into engaging in research partnerships to develop new products and processes or solve difficult problems.

The Chamber’s Executive General Manager, Ms Andrea Durrant said “without drastic improvement, Australia risks being left behind in an increasingly globalised marketplace. We must lift our game.”

In promoting industry-research collaborations, the Chamber noted the Australian Government had identified innovation and collaboration as a high priority in its vision to build more profitable, sustainable and export-focused industries. It was also emphasised that firms who do work collaboratively with research institutions grow significantly, remain more profitable and compete globally.

Nine business and research case studies were presented at the forum, with representatives from both sides discussing how the partners met, what the project was, overcoming differences, and, most importantly, what they’ve achieved in terms of positive and commercial outcomes, and the future of the relationship.

The Research Director of Deakin’s Carbon Nexus, Professor Bronwyn Fox presented, alongside industry partner Mr Carl De Koning, Business Development Manager for Quickstep Technologies. The two highlighted the mutual benefits associated with the collaboration, underpinned by strong relationships, common values and a shared vision.

Many of the case studies discussed grappling with issues such as differing organisational cultures and pace of business processes between industry and research institutions, gaining buy-in from business leadership for non-traditional Research and Development pathways, misaligned project expectations, and the aspirational ideal of co-location of industry among educational and research facilities.

“Deakin’s commercial research activities with Quickstep are going from strength to strength, in terms of our co-location, embedded practices and multi-dimensional research partnerships,” said Mr Graeme Bullock, Senior Commercialisation Manager, Deakin Research Commercial.

“It was also pleasing that Deakin has active research collaborations with many in the Chamber, including ANZ, Boeing, Epworth, Ford, GMHBA, NAB, Philips Healthcare, QENOS, TAC and Telstra, just to name a few.”

The Forum’s case studies included:

• Deakin University and Quickstep.
• Australian Catholic University and SalvoCare Eastern.
• CSIRO and Bruck Textiles.
• La Trobe University and Swisse.
• Monash University and PerkinElmer.
• RMIT University and Metro Trains.
• Swinburne University and Visy.
• The University of Melbourne and CSL.
• Victoria University and Arup.