UK universities interacting with industry: patterns of research collaboration and inter-sectoral mobility of academic researchers

Professor Robert Tijssen, Dr Alfredo Yegros and Wout Lamers from Leiden University measure the relationship between UK universities and industry within the UK, the European Union and elsewhere. The authors highlight the extent of the negative impact that Brexit is likely to have upon UK universities. The paper argues that UK research-intensive universities have become increasingly ‘enterprising’ and university-industry interactions are now an important feature of the UK higher education system. Using empirical data, Professor Tijssen and his co-authors analyse university-industry research collaboration links and cross-sectoral mobility patterns within 47 large UK universities between 2009 and 2015. They look specifically at university-industry co-authored publications and university-industry ‘crossover’ researchers – individuals affiliated with both academia and industry. Their findings show that UK research collaboration linkages and staff mobility relationships involve large numbers of partner companies located abroad and that there are hundreds of active researchers straddling and moving between UK universities and the corporate world. The results also reveal the importance of European industry to UK universities: research-active companies located in EU member states represent 24 per cent of these UK academic-industry connections. The authors conclude that the effects of Brexit could be damaging to large UK universities, as these are very heavily intertwined with European industry. There is a risk that Brexit, by diminishing or severing these links, will have harmful consequences for the future sustainability of the UK’s university-industry research and development. Professor Tijssen and Dr Yegros will present the findings from this paper at CGHE’s annual conference

Globalisation, localisation and glocalisation of university-business research cooperation: general patterns and trends in the UK university system

Working Paper 50, authored by Robert Tijssen, Wouter van de Klippe and Alfredo Yegros, is an exploratory study presenting a new systematic way of looking at ‘university-business interactions’ in the UK university system. Contemporary university-business research interactions are inevitably affected by processes of localisation and globalisation. Where science itself as well as the business sector demand for advanced scientific knowledge is becoming less dependent on geographical distance, public funding authorities increasingly expect universities to engage and cooperate with firms located in the region. How do these opposing pressures affect general trends in national higher education systems? And which patterns and trends can one discern within individual research-intensive universities? Addressing the second question, this working paper examines the 48 largest universities, and its analysis unfolds the geographical patterns and annual trends during the years 2008-2017. Its focuses on the universities’ research cooperation interactions, but also incorporate data on cross sectoral mobility of researchers. The paper collected empirical data from the author affiliate addresses listed on their university-business co-publications (UBCs). The geographical distance between pairs of university-business addresses defines a series of expanding ‘distance zones’ according to where the business sector research partner is located. The zones range from an ultra-short distance (0-49 km from the university’s city) to ultra-long distances (located more than 4,999 km away). The annual growth trends in UBC quantities reveal a consistent overall trend towards higher levels of globalisation, where partner firms are at least 500 km from the university. Many of firms are located in continental Europe. Where some universities are significantly globalising their interactions with the business sector, others show an increase of UBCs with local firms, often within a 100 km range. Many are engaging in both processes simultaneously: 23 universities seem to be ‘glocalising’ their research cooperation with the business sector

A Regional Innovation Impact Assessment Framework for universities

This report provides a framework to assess the impact of universities on their regional innovation ecosystem. The policy context for this work is provided by: a) the Renewed EU agenda for higher education which argued that universities do not attain their full potential; and b) the report by the High Level Group chaired by Pascal Lamy which called for an additional funding stream to support universities to modernise and increase their innovation impact. This report explores what the assessment framework underpinning such an innovation performance based funding instrument could look like. However, it acknowledges that the final form of such a framework would heavily depend on the regional, national or EU level instrument through which it is implemented. The report proposes a system in which universities draft a case study supported by indicators, through which they present evidence of their contribution to regional innovation. It identifies four impact categories and identifies a list of associated indicators. In this "narrative with numbers the universities can both explain how they reach this impact and contextualise their performance with reference to the development level of their region.JRC.B.7-Knowledge for Finance, Innovation and Growt

Globalisation of science in kilometres

The ongoing globalisation of science has undisputedly a major impact on how and where scientific research is being conducted nowadays. Yet, the big picture remains blurred. It is largely unknown where this process is heading, and at which rate. Which countries are leading or lagging? Many of its key features are difficult if not impossible to capture in measurements and comparative statistics. Our empirical study measures the extent and growth of scientific globalisation in terms of physical distances between co-authoring researchers. Our analysis, drawing on 21 million research publications across all countries and fields of science, reveals that contemporary science has globalised at a fairly steady rate during recent decades. The average collaboration distance per publication has increased from 334 kilometres in 1980 to 1553 in 2009. Despite significant differences in globalisation rates across countries and fields of science, we observe a pervasive process in motion, moving towards a truly interconnected global science system

Research excellence in Africa : policies, perceptions, and performance

Abstract: Our article discusses various features of research excellence (RE) in Africa, framed within the context of African science granting councils (SCGs) and pan-African RE initiatives. Our survey, collecting responses from 106 researchers and research coordinators across Africa, highlights the diversity of opinions and preferences with regards to Africa-relevant dimensions of RE and related performance indicators. The results of the survey confirm that RE is a highly multidimensional concept. Our analysis shows how some of those dimensions can be operationalised into quantifiable indicators that may suit evidence-based policy discourses on research quality in Africa, as well as research performance assessments by African SCGs. Our indicator case study, dealing with the top 1 per cent most highly cited research publications, identifies several niches of international-level RE in the African continent while highlighting the role of scientific cooperation as a driving force. To gain a deeper understanding of RE in Africa, it is important to take into account the practical challenges faced by researchers and research funding agencies to align and reconcile socioeconomic interests with international notions of excellence and associated research performance indicators. African RE should be customised and contextualised in order to be responsive to African needs and circumstances

Do University-Industry co-publication volumes correspond with university funding from business firms?

Trabajo presentado a la 19th Science and Technology Indicators Conference: "Context counts: Pathways to Master Big and Little Data" celebrada en leiden (Paises Bajos) del 3 al 9 de 2014.Analysts of university-industry interaction sometimes measure it through numbers of university-industry co-publications (UICs), because of their relative availability and international comparability. However, we do not know whether UICs correspond to a more direct measure of interaction: university funding from firms. We propose a conceptual model on four types of relationships between UICs and university funding from firms, emphasising the interactive nature of their relation. We test the model with UIC and income data from the Polytechnic University of Valencia at individual level: around 6-7% of researchers participating in projects with firms were authors of UICs published in 2008-2011; and around 27% of those UIC authors were participating in projects with firms during that period. Overall, we do not find evidence of any significant positive correlation between UIC output and university funding from the business sector in general. The one exception is a minority of authors who participate in business-funded projects, where we found a positive association of current UICs and business funding.Peer Reviewe

Do university-industry co-publication outputs correspond with university funding from firms?

[EN] Analysts of university-industry interaction sometimes measure it through numbers of university-industry co-publications (UICs), because of their relative availability and international comparability. However, we do not know whether UICs correspond to another measure of interaction: university funding from firms. We propose a conceptual model on four types of relationships between UICs and university funding from firms, emphasizing the interactive nature of their relation, e.g. not only funding can lead to UICs, but also UICs can signal competences that motivate funding. We test the model with UIC and income data from the Polytechnic University of Valencia at individual level: around 6-7% of researchers participating in projects with firms were authors of UICs published in 2008-11; and around 27% of those UIC authors were participating in projects with firms during that period. Overall, we do not find evidence of any significant positive correlation between UIC output and university funding from the business sector in general. The one exception is a minority of authors who participate in business-funded projects, where we find a positive association of current UICs and business funding.A.Y.Y. and R.J.W.T. received financial support from the CWTS-CHERPA research project (funded by the Netherlands Ministry for Education, Culture and Science).Yegros Yegros, A.; Azagra Caro, JM.; López Ferrer, MT.; Tijssen, RJ. (2016). Do university-industry co-publication outputs correspond with university funding from firms?. Research Evaluation. 25(2):136-150. doi:10.1093/reseval/rvv045S13615025

A pressure driven injection system for an ultra flat chromatograpic microchannel

A pressure-actuated on-chip injection system has been developed that is compatible with shallow microchannels with a very large aspect ratio, i.e. 1 mm deep and up to 1000 mm wide. Such channels offer potential advantages in the miniaturisation of liquid chromatography and other separation methods as they allow high loadability and low sample dispersion at the same time. Computational fluid dynamics simulations were performed to predict the flow profiles and the transport of a sample in the system and to justify the injection principle. Based on these simulations, a prototype integrated into a chip for hydrodynamic chromatography has been realised and tested experimentally. The performance of the device is satisfactory and the results are in qualitative agreement with the numerical models