Collaboration with the industry must be strengthened
New knowledge that can lead to innovation, jobs and economic growth is created when researchers and the private business sector collaborate. In order to promote such collaboration Science and Technology has established a series of industrial collaboration committees within the faculty.
Jobs and growth become available when researchers and the industry collaborate. The business sector helps to co-fund research and the knowledge that the researchers contribute can be translated into new products, innovative methods and ground-breaking technology to the benefit of the business sector and society as a whole. This is a situation in which everyone is a winner.
Collaboration with the industry is therefore something that Aarhus University has placed high on its list of priorities. Science and Technology has recently established industrial collaboration committees in all the departments with the aim of increasing dialogue and collaboration with the private business sector significantly. In the Department of Agroecology we have Senior Researcher Birte Boelt, CROP, as the chairman of our new industrial collaboration committee, which also includes six other members from each of the research sections. (Read the article about Birte Boelt here.)
Gaining an overview of our collaborative activities
The first task of the industrial collaboration committee is to establish an overview of the collaborative activities that AGRO is already engaged in.
- It is not that easy. We cannot just pull out a list. There are different degrees of collaboration and where should we set the limit? For example, sometimes the collaboration is merely a question of the business placing equipment at our disposal. In other cases large consortiums are involved, says Chairman Birte Boelt.
The next task will be to propose areas in which further collaboration with the industry can be established, particularly in connection with applications to Innovation Fund Denmark.
- We must make an effort to ensure that PhDs and Postdocs receive support in finding out how they can come into contact with the industry. The young scientists that we educate as Industrial Postdocs and Industrial PhDs can become useful future business contacts and collaborators for us, says Birte Boelt.
The areas of collaboration must also play a role in the department’s strategy, including the flagships. The chairman of AGRO’s industrial collaboration committee is therefore also a member of the management group. She will also meet with the chairmen of the faculty’s other industrial collaboration committees as well as with the deanship, where they will discuss where the focus should be in relation to strengthening industrial collaboration.
- It is interesting to hear about the collaborative activities in the other departments, not least in the departments that are ”new” to us, such as iNano and the Department of Computer Science, says Birte Boelt.
AGRO’s industrial collaboration committee consists of the following:
- Birte Boelt, CROP (chairman)
- Troels Kristensen, SYSTEM
- Peter Sørensen, JORNÆR
- Lars Juhl Munkholm, JORD
- Poul Erik Lærke, KLIMA
- Lise Nistrup Jørgensen, CROP
- Michael Kristensen, PATENT
Read more about the industrial collaboration committee - including minutes from meetings (in Danish) - here.