More collaboration between universities and private sector helps boost innovation
In the past, partnerships between universities and business organisations in Sri Lanka have been either deficient or downbeat but in recent times more and more organisations and academics have realised that corporate problems are simply beyond the scale of single organisations and those cohesive efforts are necessary to boost the potential impact of these issues.
The last few years have witnessed a resurgence in the innovative university-community partnerships, but analysts say it’s still not enough. They say that much of the corporate competition is becoming more closely keyed to innovation and constant innovation that lets companies to always refresh their product lines is becoming a necessity for many.
Globalisation has intensified the pressures for firms. As distances and market barriers shrink, the number of tangible and potential competitors has increased and innovation is often the only survival strategy for firms, experts say.
A workshop in Colombo which discussed a book on promoting “University-Industry (U-I) Collaborations’ status, case studies and policy options in Sri Lanka†saw an interesting discourse recently organised by the World Bank (WB) which had many of these areas addressed. In Sri Lanka, as in many other developed and developing countries, the majority of links between universities and companies can best be described as short-term, informal interactions with low direct transfer of knowledge and innovation.
Knowledge is power
It was discussed that strong science, technology, and innovation links between universities and industry are of significant importance to Sri Lanka as it strives to become an upper-middle-income country. “Sri Lanka’s growth path will need to rely on knowledge-intensive activities such as information technology, engineering, industrial processing, and financial services. Closer collaboration between universities and companies in these activities is essential to improve corporate competitiveness and accelerate sustainable growth,” says the book that was launched at the workshop.
Almost all industrial countries have moved over the last 10-20 years to make U-I links a focus of their innovation systems. Besides the developed countries, several developing countries such as China, India, Malaysia, and Singapore, among others, have introduced policies to promote stronger U-I collaboration, Kurt Larsen, Senior Education Specialist at WB and a co-author of the book said in his presentation. It was also discussed that the drive for innovation and economic development in a knowledge society requires universities to play a more prominent role.
Mr. Larsen added that local firms don’t invest much in Research and Development (R&D) and that Sri Lanka ranks at the bottom in terms of R&D.
If universities can radically raise the flow of innovation through their own basic and applied research, and if such innovations can be applied in the business sector, the argument goes, countries with dynamic university sectors can count on higher rates of growth, mainly if the benefits of new findings lean to remain localised for a period of time.
The government of Sri Lanka is keen to promote U-I collaboration and partnerships as displayed by the formation of the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Sri Lanka 2011-2015 as well as the corresponding National Coordinating and Monitoring Framework 2013-2015, it was discussed, but all academics stressed the need to identify a national university-industry partnership policy as part of the overall governance of the innovation ecosystem in Sri Lanka.
It is in this context that the Policy Planning and Development Unit of the Higher Education for the Twenty First Century (HETC) Project in the Ministry of Higher Education and Highway, in partnership with the World Bank, decided to draft this report.
The team which saw this publication through developed a survey to collect current data on U-I collaboration to address the first of the study objectives, with separate questionnaires for companies and university departments. Based on key results of the 2015 survey the book analyzes the status of U-I collaboration.
Symbiotic relationship
The symbiotic relationship between government, universities and business community would contribute significantly to more innovation, competitiveness and growth, Prof. M. Esham, a co-author of the book said during his presentation. “U-I collaborations can also increase the relevance of education and R&D investments and increase mobility of labour between public and private sectors.”
As was discovered from the questionnaire survey on U-I collaboration, however, there are increasing examples of R&D partnership between companies and universities in Sri Lanka that are strategic and long-lasing; this is also reflected in the case studies of U-I collaboration in the book.
The U-I collaboration in Sri Lanka was based mainly on a survey of companies and university departments carried out in 2015. Two structured questionnaires were hosted on the website of the Higher Education for the Twenty-First Century Project, and e-mails were sent out to potential respondents, inviting them to participate.
Companies that responded to the survey are, in general, spending more on R&D as a percentage of company turnover compared to 2007. However, although 62 per cent of the companies reported having an in-house unit devoted to R&D, more than 50 per cent of the companies invested less than 1 per cent of annual turnover in R&D.
According to the companies, the most important benefits of U-I collaboration are recruitment of high-quality graduates, obtaining access to new ideas and knowhow, and new product development. There is no significant difference in the ranking of the mentioned benefits between the two periods.
The predominant constraint appears to be the lack of proper mechanisms for collaboration with universities along with the lack of entrepreneurial spirit among academics, the low commercialisation potential of university research, unsuitability of university structures for collaboration, and lack of awareness of facilities and expertise available in universities.
Comparison of the two periods (now and 2007) reveals that communication with the university and lack of awareness of facilities and expertise available in universities, and lack of a focal contact points that are issues of concern, while funds for initiating collaborations and university interest in collaboration have improved.
Industry suggestions for improvement of U-I collaboration include steps to promote student internships, industrial visits by academics and students, involvement of industry resource persons as teaching faculty, and informal interactions between academic and industry representatives.
Companies suggest that factors such as personal rapport with academics, financial rewards, MOUs for R&D activities, joint R&D, and producing high-quality graduates are vital for successful collaboration.