The Search for Talent and Technology - Examining the attitudes of EPSRC industrialcollaborators towards universities

Increasingly universities are seen to be one of the key actors in national innovation systems (Bessant & Venables,2008; Cosh, Lester, & Hughes, 2006; Etzkowitz, Webster, Gebhardt, & Terra, 2000; Lundvall, Johnson, Andersen, &Dalum, 2002). Firms reach out to universities as a source of knowledge and support for their innovative activities. Theyuse universities as partners in collaborative research projects and as sites for recruiting trained and skilled problemsolvers (Perkmann & Walsh, 2007; Salter & Martin, 2001). The movement of many firms towards more open anddistributed models of innovation creates substantial opportunities for universities to increase the breadth and depthof their role in the innovation system (Chesbrough, 2003). Moreover, universities themselves have undergoneconsiderable changes in terms of their systems of managing their intellectual property and industrial engagement.Governments have also given greater attention to the nature of interaction between universities and industry, seekingto harness the potential economic value of universities’ knowledge and skills for economic development. Given thisenvironment, it is an opportune moment to explore the nature of collaboration between universities and industry inthe UK.This report provides a window on the nature of collaboration by reviewing the results of a survey of industrialcollaborators on Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) collaborative projects. The survey wasundertaken in late 2007 and early 2008 and covers the entire population of firms that have collaborated on EPSRCcollaborative research grants since 1999. The survey builds on and extends a previous survey of EPSRC industrialcollaborators, conducted in 2004 by the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex. Bycombining the two surveys, we are able to compare changes in the nature and attitude of businesses towards theircollaborations with universities from 2004 to 2008. We use this information to help understand t