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The benefits of collaboration between universities and industry have been widely recognised, however, little practical guidance is provided as to how to establish successful strategic collaborations and support the different types of interactions between these two very different stakeholders. We have successfully adapted and used innovation roadmapping as a method to help these two heterogeneous partners to establish collaborations of common interest. The approach has been used twenty times to establish collaborations between firms and academia at various scales: a) the whole university, b) a large part of a university i.e. several departments, and c) specific academic groups. Feedback showed that roadmapping can be a powerful method for aligning the needs of the two communities, helping to identify common priorities and aiding communication and clarity in the collaboration activities. Overall, participants from both communities indicated that the method was simulating and provided new and useful insights.

The Cambridge Grand Challenges (CGC) initiative was set up in 2018 to foster collaboration between industry, government, and academia, and designed to help put the UK at the forefront of the industries of the future. As part of this, a program was set up to facilitate the process of Social Sciences doctoral students working with industry in short internships, to increase innovation and improve skills. In this literature review paper we aim to review the basis of this approach and the academic and industrial context. A contribution is made towards uniting three distinct areas of literature, starting with the underpinnings of academic-industrial collaboration, followed by the social science perspective on academic-industrial knowledge exchange, then considering the links between internships and learning. The review concludes with proposed implications for knowledge transfer within this specific context. The paper highlights the research questions needed to further investigate the benefits, barriers and enablers, and the processes which facilitate the value delivering mechanisms of engagement, to demonstrate how such programs make a contribution towards improving UK industrial productivity.

This paper explores how coaching using University generated knowledge can be seen as a form of inbound organizational innovation (OI) that enables SMEs to improve their innovation activities. Evidence from one of seven OI pilots within the EU Science2Society program is starting to offer analytical evidence of what aspects of the approach are successful and why, and discuss the learning from the project with respect to inbound open innovation. The pilot involves working with 10 SMEs to explore and map knowledge transfer in the form of direct one to one coaching engagements between academia and SMEs. The knowledge transfer in this pilot is carried out by means of applying strategy and technology management tools, which have been developed through research, in a workshop setting using an SME’s own business context. Preliminary results are being analysed to show what limits and enables effective knowledge transfer and to understand why and how group coaching helps an SME’s innovation activities.

Aligning technology and other functional perspectives for innovation and strategy is challenging. This is compounded by communication barriers arising from high levels of complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity associated with technologically intensive innovation. Conceptual frameworks, tools and methods such as roadmapping, portfolio matrices and scenario planning are used to support the management of technology and innovation activities. These often have a strong visual aspect that helps to address the issues of dialogue exchange and interaction. From a visualisation perspective, roadmapping is of particular interest given its prominence as a flexible method and highly visual tool. This paper focuses on the mediating role that structured roadmapping templates have during interactive strategy workshops. A quasi-experiment comparing the performance of two templates is reported, comparing a ‘classic’ format with a new template that was designed to be ‘selffacilitating’. This new template incorporates guidance that a facilitator would normally provide, in order to minimise intervention and empower groups to organise their own strategic discussions. The new template is shown to perform significantly better in terms of completeness, consistency, quality and ease of use.

In today’s world, research institutes are playing an increasingly important role in bringing new technology to market. Researchers and scientists are becoming more entrepreneurial in trying to commercialize their findings as new technologies and products. However, academic research focuses very little on the whole commercialization process and the management tools needed by entrepreneurial scientists. This paper looks at commercialization from the viewpoint of a group of scientists seeking to develop a new product from successful research. It takes a business eco-system perspective and presents a theoretical framework developed by mapping a wide range of literature. This framework is then compared to data collected during a longitudinal case study on the development of a fibre optic sensor analyser with application in the construction industry. A key finding is that relationships with partners and other supporting organizations need to be formed earlier than the literature currently suggests, and that an awareness of the business ecosystem within which the technology fits is as important to scientists as knowledge of available innovation and technology management tools. Hence an early focus on communication and partnership is highlighted as an important factor for commercialization success.

Identifying problems that a technology can solve at an early stage in its development can enhance the exploitation opportunities for an organisation. Initiating an ongoing technology-commercial dialogue facilitates the process but can feel unstructured and lacking in focus. Current roadmapping processes, while supportive of the communication process, sometimes lack consideration of specific parameters needed for matching a new technology to a new market. This paper describes the development and testing of a practical approach to mapping technology opportunities, with the aim of engaging both commercial and technical stakeholders in evaluating a technology and recording tangible outputs from the discussion. Using an exploratory topic roadmapping workshop approach in conjunction with a technology performance comparison template, a practical process is provided for scientists, technologists and industrialists to drive forward targeted commercialisation. Development and use of this approach is illustrated by case studies of the process and the templates used. The templates are easy to apply and help to structure and guide discussion, promote a consensual way forward and lead to practical action plans. The organisational impact and process learning is discussed, along with implications for improving and further testing of the methods.

There is an urgent need for technology development to make a sustainable or restorative contribution to the environment, with its inherent links to society and societal welfare. Forward-looking activities, such as firm level technology forecasting and technology intelligence, are increasingly important in providing positive impact that is complementary to policy level interventions. However, selecting and implementing appropriate approaches to conduct these activities and quantifying their value contribution is still difficult. This article seeks to demonstrate how technology opportunities may be explored more effectively by combining existing methods for assessing new technology and identifying sustainable value, in an approach for industry that is both configurable and practical while delivering tangible benefits. It details the two-year university-industry collaboration and testing of a configurable toolset, based on four templates used in a workshop setting. Results indicate that the toolset has successfully probed technological, environmental and social capabilities, promoted the selection and implementation of an appropriate approach and led to the quantification of value through the inclusive, transparent and documented assessment of technology opportunities and the tangible actions identified. In summary, the toolset supports company employees in realising a measure of prospective sensemaking, which is a key deliverable from forward-looking activities.