Innovation projects at the University-Pharmaceutical Industry interface: challenges and opportunities

COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital transformation of pharmaceutical R&D. This paper aimed to diagnose some key aspects of University-Pharmaceutical Industry (U-Pharma) partnerships in Brazil that should be addressed in digital platforms to enable the creation of innovative solutions to COVID-19. A qualitative research was applied through an online guiding questionnaire to identify the main points that are considered as opportunities or challenges by the parties involved in the University-Pharmaceutical Industry interface. The responses were processed using content analysis to raise common themes. Further, in-depth interviews were performed to evaluate the subjective perception of these themes. The results of the questionnaire showed the topics bureaucracy, partnership, and agility as the most relevant. The in-depth interviews showed the subjective perception of these themes. The joint analysis of the results showed that in addition to problems related to project management processes, issues that involve the human dimension, such as pro-executive behavior and communication skills, are also extremely relevant to the success of U-Pharma projects. The development of digital solutions for Knowledge Management of innovative projects of U-Pharma collaborations should take into consideration both the project and human dimensions. It is recommended that Project and People Management should be integrated into digital platforms.