BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
Fruitful relationships
Wendy Nicholson, Head of Business Development, Edinburgh Research and Innovation, on how partnerships breed innovation
The Greek philosopher Aristotle is quoted as saying: “Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit”. While he may not have been thinking of university industry engagement when he came up with that, it applies none the less. The UK and Scottish governments have been very clear in their direction that UK higher education institutes should work more closely with UK industry partners to help innovate and bring the country back to prosperity. They have both taken steps to help facilitate this
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with initiatives to help smooth the interaction. However, if we believe Aristotle, then we know that building truly innovative and strategic relationships will take time and needs long-term investment from all parties. The University of Edinburgh has been working with industry for decades and has been actively engaged in commercial activities for more than 40 years. In that time, we have re-shaped our teams and refocused our efforts to an ever-changing commercial environment.
That innovative process within Edinburgh Research and Innovation (ERI) is what helps us stay at the forefront of commercialisation.
In the past ten years, we identified a desire to see a change in our interactions with industry, so we rethought our approach to engaging with industry and started on a long-term strategy to build relationships around research excellence, something the University of Edinburgh has in abundance. The first step was to embed business development staff in schools and colleges alongside the academic research base. Integrating the staff in this way has built far stronger relationships with the academic researchers and helped develop a stronger culture and awareness of the benefits of working with industry.
The next key step was to restructure the business development team to have a clear strategic focus on company relations. This, combined with the closer relations with the research base, has allowed us to develop stronger, longer-term partnerships with companies in Scotland, the UK and all around the world. We aim to understand our partners – to work with them to better understand their business needs, ambitions and their goals. That way, we can provide for their needs.
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