Every successful global business is founded on innovation. But as a company grows, it has to turn its once disruptive thinking into a codified set of structures and processes capable of keeping thousands of employees pointing in roughly the same direction. These mechanisms do an excellent job of delivering continuity but they are not always conducive to innovation.
For large companies, Cambridge can supply some of that new thinking and positive disruption. Complementary capabilities – our blue-sky, longer-term thinking combined with a business’s ability to get things done – mean that we can do things together that we can’t achieve on our own. Indeed, it is only through collaboration that we can address some of the world’s most pressing challenges and bring about positive economic and societal change.
However, we need to be mindful that those same differences that make our partnerships so fruitful can also lead to frustrations on both sides, if not carefully managed.
Orchestrated engagement
One of the challenges of working with Cambridge is our breadth and scale. With more than 150 Faculties and Departments, nearly 12,000 staff and more than 22,000 students not to mention 31 independent Colleges, the opportunities for businesses to engage with us are plentiful.
Sometimes, we are told, too plentiful. We know the University is complicated – but it’s not just us. Almost all large companies also have labyrinthine organisational structures. Trying to bring the right people together at the right time can take patience and persistence.
There can also be tensions around expectations and outcomes. Academics are measured by the quality and quantity of their publications. Firms seeking to achieve competitive advantage from these relationships don’t – understandably – always want to broadcast their findings to their competitors. Developing the right intellectual property framework which gives each party sufficient rewards is, therefore, a precondition of a successful partnership.
It is also the case that curiosity-led research does not always result in an outcome which has a direct commercial application. That can be a source of frustration if it has not been understood at the outset.
To help overcome these hurdles, our Strategic Partnerships Office plus a small army of knowledge exchange professionals dotted around the University are on hand to facilitate collaboration. Having dedicated relationship managers on both sides of the partnership can also be helpful in keeping the lines of communication running smoothly and efficiently. Anna Dalglish, Data Science Partnerships Lead at Aviva, attributes the success of its collaboration with Cambridge to having people in those roles: “Having a partnership lead on both sides has meant we can get things done really quickly.”
Our partnerships are built around three broad areas:
Research and innovation: Ways to engage include research collaborations ranging from large multidisciplinary collaborations with senior academics to sponsoring a PhD. Firms can also join one of our industry clubs (and benefit from collaborating with other companies in a non-competitive or pre-competitive environment) or by sharing workspaces to promote the exchange of ideas and build productive relationships. Relocating a team (or in AstraZeneca’s case, its global headquarters) to Cambridge can also help with both of these things as well as connecting organisations with promising spin-outs and start-ups across our flourishing innovation ecosystem.
Talent: Access to a talent pool of Cambridge graduates (and postgraduates) and the opportunity to recruit the next generation of leaders and innovators is usually near the top of any strategic partner’s wish list. They can do this through Careers Services events, hosting student projects and funding PhDs and postgraduate training. Cambridge can also help companies develop their own in-house talent through a programme of bespoke and open executive and professional development programmes.
Services: Businesses may also benefit from a range of professional support services that can help them, for example, license a particular technology or research tool, access labs and equipment or find investment opportunities.
"More than the sum of our parts"
Businesses can engage with the University in a very focused way by, for example, working with an individual academic or licensing a technology through Cambridge Enterprise. And that's great. But in order to do achieve significant and sustained impact, longer-term strategic partnerships have a critical role to play. Broader collaborations are also of interest to, and hence often funded by, government which wants to see its investment in the research base lead to home-grown business success and the social and economic benefits that arise from it.
A great example of how a long-term relationship can build on its success is the University’s collaboration with Rolls-Royce which has, over 40 odd years, resulted in breakthrough after breakthrough. Mark Jefferies, Chief of University Research Liaison at Rolls-Royce, says that its distinct model of university collaboration "means that we can create a core of activity around a particular specialism and by sharing knowledge and expertise with a trusted partner, together we are able to achieve considerably more than the sum of our parts.”
These collaborations are also very important for individual researchers. In a recent article about another longstanding University partnership, I was struck by a remark made by Helena Rannikmae, a PhD student funded by AstraZeneca, who explained how having an industrial sponsor has enriched her research: “I definitely think my PhD would have less impact without AstraZeneca’s input. They really pushed me both in terms of the underlying biology and in thinking about its long-term application.”
If these partnerships are to succeed, they have to deliver real benefits to both sides. For our business partners, it’s ultimately about achieving and sustaining competitive advantage. From the University’s perspective, they give academics an opportunity to put their research into practice to achieve real impact. Issues arising at the commercial frontline also give rise to interesting research questions and new avenues to explore. Students and postdocs can benefit from funding, industrial experience and career opportunities through collaborations, projects and placements. Even if they choose to pursue a career elsewhere, they will have seen first-hand how business works and acquired some immensely valuable skills along the way.
Collaboration and COVID
We can’t talk about strategic partnerships without mentioning COVID-19. The pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives – and our collaborations are no exception. Different sectors, of course, have been impacted in different ways. But all of us have had to adapt to new way of working and learn to deal with considerable uncertainty. This has presented some significant challenges – but also some opportunities. It has also raised interesting and important questions about priorities as we (eventually) emerge from our current situation. Managing risk is clearly high on everyone’s agenda but so is the mental health and wellbeing of a workforce under intense and sustained pressure and the need to keep a focus on carbon zero commitments.
Right now we are all experiencing disruption on a massive scale and there is no doubt that further challenges lie ahead. Together, universities and businesses have a vital role to play in tackling the immediate crisis but also in laying the foundations of our long-term recovery.
Professor Andy Neely, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Relations
Photo: Professor Cecilia Mascolo and Dr Fahim Kawsar, Founding Director of Pervasive Systems Research at Nokia Bell Labs in Cambridge
