Præsentationen blev holdt ved InfinIT-konferencen SummIT 2013, der blev afholdt den 22. maj 2013 på Axelborg i København. Læs mere om konferencen her: http://www.infinit.dk/dk/arrangementer/tidligere_arrangementer/summit_2013.htm

1. On Research Collaborations
Between Industry and Academia –
Water meets Fire or Win/Win?
Jesper Jensen
Oticon / Aalborg University
InfinIT - SummIT 2013

2. Outline of talk
Background
Research collaboration with academia: Why
should industry be interested?
Research collaboration with industry: Why should
university be interested?
Some observations on (successful) industry
integration of university research.

3. Background
Aalborg University (2000): Phd degree, Electrical Engineering / acoustic
signal processing.
TU Delft, NL (2000-2007):
- Postdoc and assistant professor.
- Several research projects with industrial partners, notably
Royal Philips Electronics, NL.
Oticon (2007-2012):
- Senior researcher at Oticon: scouting and development of
future audiological /signal processing concepts.
- Several research projects with academic partners, notably
TU Delft, NL, and Aalborg University, DK.
Oticon/AAU (2012 - )
- Professor at Section for Multimedia Information and Signal
Processing, Aalborg University.
- Still at Oticon.

4. Research collaborations between
Industry and Academia – Disclaimer.
I am mainly concerned with research collaboration between
academia and industry in terms of a few (industrial-) phds and
postdocs…. But I believe my observations are valid for larger
research efforts as well.
My experience is limited to research collaborations involving
medium-sized (e.g. Oticon), and large (e.g. Philips) industrial
partners… However, I do believe that many of my observations
apply to small industry partners as well.

5. Research collaboration with academia:
Why should industry be interested?
Scouting of future technologies.
Easier/better access to newest knowledge.
Visibility -> Recruitment.
More and better suited candidates.
Credibility.
Inspiration, post - education of employees via knowledge flow.
Access to expertise: Industry engineers can typically not spend
10.000 hours on a topic, university researchers might.
…

6. Research collaboration with industry: Why
should university be interested?
Even more industry relevant education.
Improved recruitment of students.
Cooperation possibilities.
Networking.
Funding.
Get knowledge of particular technical applications (e.g. hearing
instruments). Necessary for successful (applied) research
activities. Useful for fundamental research activities.
…

7. University/Industry Research Projects
Industry interests
Commercial
exploitation.
Patentability.
Practical
applicability.
Performance.
Predictibility.
(What, when, how
much?)
University researchers
interests
Novelty.
Fundamental solutions.
Publication.
Personal interest /
competences.
Long term research
strategy

8. University/Industry Research Projects
Industry interests
Commercial
exploitation.
Patentability.
Practical
applicability.
Performance.
Predictibility.
(What, when, how
much?)
Claim: Room for both applied and fundamental research of
value for both parties…. provided that
industry makes necessary time and ressource investment.
university uses industry application as vehicle for research.
University researchers
interests
Novelty.
Fundamental solutions.
Publication.
Personal interest /
competences.
Long term research
strategy

9. University/Industry Research Projects
Successful industry integration of university
research.
Industry
Involvement
- Initial and otherwise sporadic meetings.
Industry role: passive. ”Wait for thesis to hit your
desk”.
- Regular meetings. Industry role: reactive,
observer.
- Frequent meetings. Parallel project in company.
Industry role: proactive, participator.

10. University/Industry Research Projects
Successful industry integration of university
research.
Industry
Involvement
- Initial and otherwise sporadic meetings.
Industry role: passive. ”Wait for thesis to hit your
desk”.
- Regular meetings. Industry role: reactive,
observer.
- Frequent meetings. Parallel project in company.
Industry role: proactive, participator.
as we want them to be At Oticon

11. University/Industry Research Projects
- Frequent meetings. Parallel project in company.
Industry role: proactive, participator.
as we want them to be At Oticon
Frequent meetings with:
Industry supervisors (~10% FTE)
Pre-development / discovery in synergy with research project.

12. University/Industry Research Projects
as we want them to be At Oticon
Frequent meetings with:
Consequence:
Dissemination / consolidation of knowledge in company.
Knowledge does not only reside in the head of a single person.
Solidity: research project has many de facto supervisors.
Head start: generated knowledge is used already at early stage
of pre-development project (before competitors have the
opportunity to read/learn about this).
Post education of industrial participants.
Claim: High quality vs. effort (time) tradeoff.
Industry supervisors (~10% FTE)
Pre-development / discovery in synergy with research project.

13. Conclusions
Succesful university/industry collaboration involves
understanding each others working conditions and
competences, i.e., communication. Although this is not all that
difficult, this point is often overlooked.
Industry: accept that results will become public. IPR strategy!
Industry: research collaboration is a (long-term) investment like
any other…
Industry: there exists a minimum investment: Initiating the
research and leaning back = money lost.
University: Remember, happy customers tend to come back.