Collaboration between universities and organisations

The sources of ideas and knowledge that an organisation can learn from vary. Here Dr Tim Hammond, Director of Commercialisation and Economic Development at Durham University, talks about his own experiences of open innovation. Dr Hammond has led teams within the University that have engaged in open innovation activities with a broad range of partnerships – including multinationals, smaller firms, and public sector organisations. In this video he spends some time discussing the successful partnership with Procter and Gamble.

Dr Hammond explains his angle on the nature of collaboration between organisations and universities. He discusses the ‘win-win’ nature of successful partnerships. From the University side Dr Hammond discusses how this may lead access to company data, greater understanding of how industry works, bringing different perspectives to core scientific problems, and providing resources for further research projects. From the external partner side he explains how working with universities can offer access to experts in a multiple fields and to a range of research facilities and equipment which may not easily be accessible otherwise.

He emphasises that mutual understanding is key and that each party needs to know how the output of the collaboration will be used. He also explains that the relationships between both parties have to be right with multi-points of contact, ie not dependent on one or two individuals from each side.

Reflection

Thinking about this video, consider the following questions:

• What thoughts have you had about the different kinds of partnerships that might support your own organisation’s growth?
• Do you think universities or other research centres could be potential partners? What could you offer in return?
• Has it made you think differently about how you might go about working in partnerships?

Please add your thoughts around this to the discussion.