Image: From the State of the Relationship report front cover
A new strategic partnership between The Institute of Cancer Research, London, the pharma company Merck and Cancer Research UK features in a new report on effective collaborations between academics and industry partners.
The State of the Relationship report, launched at a ceremony in Central London by the National Centre for Universities and Business, includes case studies of some of the UK's best university-business collaborations.
Download the NCUB State of the Relationship Report (PDF 4MB)
The report also contains detailed analysis of the health of partnership working between the university and industry sectors, and its contribution to the UK economy.
The ICR is an international leader in assessments of academic-business collaboration. Our partnerships with companies – of which we have more than 200 active currently – are the responsibility of our Enterprise Unit.
Our partnership with Merck and Cancer Research UK is a multi-project collaboration and licensing deal that will bring together three independent research programmes which aim to discover and develop new types of cancer drug.
It features in The State of the Relationship alongside innovative collaborations from a diverse range of fields – from a Cardiff programme to create a waterless cleaning technology for aircraft, to work in Manchester on the development of nuclear energy.
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Recent trends in university-industry partnerships
The report pulls out intriguing trends in the performance of academic partnerships with industry across time.
For example, comparing 2015 with 2016 – the most recent years in the scope of the report – foreign businesses increased their investment while domestic investment fell.
While the number of deals struck between universities and both Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and large businesses increased over the same period, the average size of deal decreased.
Income from licensing deals for the university sector rose almost 40 per cent over the time period, to £125.8m.
The ICR also earned around £40m more than in the preceding year, and so we were largely responsible for the sector-wide increase.