Academia-industry collaboration: ways to a strong and beneficial partnership

Academia and industry today often share a mutual interest in research as their long-lasting success is closely related to the innovations they are able to create. Despite this common goal, both parties have different viewpoints on the most important research topics as well as the means, methods and necessary efforts to reach the goals. This talk will focus on the benefits of a close academia-industry collaboration. Following the history of TTTech Computertechnik AG, once founded as a spin-off company from Vienna University of Technology and now a research-driven high-tech enterprise, it highlights the commonalities and differences of university- vs. company-based research. Supported by practical examples, the talk also explores the different possibilities of collaborative funded research projects, and categorizes and aligns them with the product development lifecycle in industry. The conclusion features the lessons-learnt from 15 years of academia-industry collaboration and summarizes what practitioners can learn from academia and vice-versa.