Industry–academia partnership

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Effective industry–academia partnership is crucial to the advancement of the science and engineering of deployable technologies that ultimately contribute to our well being and security. This was featured in a Panel Discussion, ‘‘Academia–Industry Collaboration in Sustainable Development’’ at the 8th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES 2012) held in Ohrid, Macedonia. The author reflected on the discussion in the panel session and have had some additional thoughts on this issue. The relationship between academia and industry has been examined at various fora, panel, and strategic discussions. A quick search through Google Scholar revealed approximately 170,000 publications containing those words. The most common interactions of academia with industry have been described as relationship, partnership, technology and know-how transfer, collaboration, synergy, innovations, challenges, reconciliation, opportunities, perspectives, and even cross fertilization. The search for the exact phrase ‘‘Industry–academia relationship’’ provided about 80 results from very wide range of activities. To sum up: a lot of assessment, description, and recommendation is available. However, let us consider this partnership from a little more relaxed angle. This has always been like a marriage, and like most marriages, the relationship can sometimes be somewhat uneasy. Both industry and academia need each other for their successful existence and growth. However, their interests and priorities are by definition different in a number of ways. One of the aims of this contribution is to point out and suggest possible solutions on situations where the two partners have identical interests and where sources of possible conflicts of interest exist. The industrial ventures need to maximise profit by producing useful, low cost products demanded by the market, i.e., customers. Well running and commercially successful production is a priority to most production managers. A potential innovation is in many cases undertaken only when there is no option to extending or keeping the commercially successful process. It usually carries some extra cost and possible complications for changing a well-managed production. The industry needs rather specific and well-targeted research leading to an optimal level of the innovation. The level of innovation varies in different branches of industry. In branches such as microelectronics the innovation cycle has been accelerating and products need to be continually improved for keeping or growing their market share sometimes even after a few months. Fast innovation cycle is a sign of highly successful research and innovation policy. However, this can trigger problems leading to creation of a considerable amount of waste, which is created by the fast obsolescence of products. The industrial partners have usually have only a limited number of academic institutions with whom to partner. Initial interactions are fraught with pitfalls. It requires time to develop mutual confidence. The industrial partner needs a reasonable assurance that the academic research has a good chance to be successful. Longer time relationship offers better chances of success and maintenance of confidentiality. J. J. Klemes (&) Process Systems Engineering Centre (PROSPECT), Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia