Experiences of collaborative projects between industry and academia

Abstract

Ever since I began with research I have worked in cooperation with trade industry and usually together with companies and municipalities. It has been a good way to get co-sponsorship for the research and help with measurements and chemical analyses performance. Today many research councils have the demand that the research shall be linked by 50% or more to the industry. The Triple or Quadruple
Helix concepts lead to cooperation with trade and industry to solve appearing problems in society calling for being solved. This paper presents experiences of cooperation with several companies: one in the wood floor manufacturing industry, two chemicals suppliers, one utilizer of the wood waste from the industry and producing energy to the industry, two manufacturers of industrial waste water treatment. A special training program was practiced in order to put all participants on the same project knowledge level and overcome tensions among the members of the project team. There were participants of different gender, age, experience and hierarchy level. The project was unique as it gave possibilities for 5 PhD students working in cooperation trying to solve the same water treatment system and for us it is not common that so many students get possibility to work in the same research project. The project will also end up in a Demo treatment plant for processing water and developing wetland system for transformation of stormwater for the use of irrigation of logs. The project ended up in a high amount of scientific and conference papers as well as established new doctors that is crucial target for the academy.