Culture Clash Seen As Top Barrier in Europe to University-industry R&D

Culture conflicts get in the way of good collaboration between European universities and companies, according to preliminary results of a new survey released at the Euroscience Open Forum.

The online survey, being conducted by the Science|Business news service, found differences in culture are the most common obstacles to good collaboration cited by university researchers and company executives - with 30% of respondents picking that from a list of problems. Conflict over the goals of joint research was the second most-common problem cited, at 26%. Among business executives who answered the survey, 62% agreed that university researchers "donĂ't understand business or market demands."

Getting good collaboration between university and industry is a problem world-wide, but itĂ's increasingly regarded as a major obstacle to innovation and economic growth in Europe. Policy analysts have coined a term for its consequence - "the European Paradox," with great ideas originating in European labs but commercially exploited in US or Asian companies. As a result, many European Union leaders have recently been targeting programmes to improve relations

The survey probes some of the attitudes underlying this communications problem. Other factors, beside cultural outlook and conflicting goals, that were cited by the respondents included uncertainty over who owns the innovation and - especially among business executives - paperwork and the time involved in managing the collaboration.

On a positive note, the academic and business respondents alike agreed that itĂ's good for society to have such collaborations happen. Of those with experience of collaboration (more than half the respondents), 68% agreed that it had been worth while. And even more, 82%, said it had produced innovations.

But did it result in an innovation actually getting widely used in society? Respondents were evenly divided, with 34% saying yes, 34% saying no, and the remainder saying they didnĂ't know.

The survey began online June 13 among online registrants for the Euroscience Open Forum meeting, the largest multi-disciplinary meeting of researchers in Europe, from 18-22 July in Barcelona. As of 18 July, 228 had responded to the survey.

Posted to the site on 23rd July 2008