Encourage more researchers to gain industry experience, says NCUB

Encouraging researchers to move between industry and academia throughout their careers will stimulate innovation and growth, according to senior business and university leaders.

In a new report, the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) says that just 20 per cent of researchers currently working at UK universities have previously been employed in the private sector.

Its research showed that this is below the average across the European Union, and about half as many as in countries such as Poland and Bulgaria.

However, it is broadly in line with other large research- and development-intensive economies such as Germany and France.

Concerted action is needed from government, research funders, universities, businesses and researchers themselves to improve this and help reap the benefits of “intersectoral mobility”, says the NCUB researcher career mobility task force.

Sam Laidlaw, co-chair of the task force and chair of NCUB, said the UK has made progress in recent years in supporting researcher mobility, but it must go further and faster.

“Businesses and universities materially benefit from researcher mobility, by encouraging them to collaborate and gain the experiences they need to develop impactful innovations,” he said.

“To meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century, we must support research to happen across the interfaces of academia, industry, government and other sectors by developing dynamic, diverse career pathways.”

The task force calls on government to make diverse research careers a key design principle of the research and innovation system.

And it says public research funders should come together to design a more comprehensive mobility scheme offer, so all researchers have the opportunity to access support.

NCUB believes that every researcher in the UK deserves the opportunity to experience research in different environments and domains.

Karen Holford, co-chair of the task force and vice-chancellor of Cranfield University, said the recommendations created a blueprint for a more connected system, setting out a call to action to the sector to be bolder, and to the government to ensure the incentives and funding are in place to catalyse a revolution in research careers.

The report highlights a number of intersectoral mobility programmes established by UK organisations, including the Academy of Medical Sciences and the British Academy.

It says these are successful in creating specific opportunities for researchers to work with and across organisations in other sectors to build connections and create real world impact from their research.

NCUB says greater intersectoral mobility would allow universities to gain access to researchers with industry skills and expertise in people and process management.

“This knowledge in turn benefits internal ways of working, strengthens university-industry connections, including access to business networks and potential funding sources, and brings in the skills necessary to drive and lead spin-outs,” say the authors.

They add that stronger links with industry can also help inform new research questions, creating a positive feedback loop between universities and industry partners.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com