Since 2007, I have been supporting companies and universities to innovate together. For the knowledge economy, knowledge is becoming an ever-more important resource. Universities are seen as a key provider of knowledge. They are especially good in providing understanding, connections, and new ideas. Companies are to obtain (harvest) this knowledge, and to use it to develop new or enhanced products and services.
However, to my experience, companies find it hard to find knowledge solutions. One argument I heard repeatedly, is that knowledge of interest is hard to find. The knowledge produced is embedded in hundreds of patents, thousands of academics, and tens of thousands graduates. To make things worse, this knowledge presented on millions of different academic websites across Europe. That is, if the knowledge is presented at all.
Academics often find it challenging to learn about the challenges that companies would like to see solved at this moment. Moreover, it takes a serious effort to advertise the knowledge they offer at just the right target audience of company researchers. Commonly, the academic advertises his expertise, the university advertises her patents, and that student graduates fend for themselves to find a next career opportunity.
Governments have a drive to invest in academia-industry collaboration. However, it is becoming more difficult to ensure that the right information on the right funding opportunity reaches the right people at the right time.
Small and Medium-Sized Companies benefit from being able to advertise their expertise at larger companies, from being able to identify academics that can help them innovate their products and services, and from being able to find the right funding opportunities.
My conclusion is that knowledge solutions take so much time to find that everybody misses out on opportunities that are mutually beneficial. Therefore, I organise markets for knowledge and innovation budget. Specifically, I collect industrial challenges. I match these challenges to academic knowledge-based solutions. Then, I add budgets for research and innovation. To my experience, mixing these three ingredients into one convenient market for knowledge and innovation budget is the best way to enable companies and universities to innovate together.
Because I expect you to be a busy person, I take as much work from your hands as you like, and offer you a high level of service. Moreover, I offer management reports on the (economic) impact the market has on your conference or network. These reports can be used to develop fact-based policy, or as an argument to obtain public funding. After all, both ‘impact’ and ‘dissemination’ are familiar criteria used to assign public funding.
Previous projects that piloted markets for knowledge and innovation budget were received enthusiastically by academics, companies, students and governments alike. However, these pilot projects were all dismantled once the funding ended. Because of the appreciation for the pilot projects, I decided to offer the service to host markets for knowldge and innovation budget on a commercial basis.
Are you interested?