State of the Relationship Report 2017

This is the National Centre’s flagship publication and includes updated metrics on progress in collaboration between universities, business and government. The Collaboration Progress Monitor shows solid healthy growth:

• Investment in university business collaboration from both foreign sources and domestic companies is growing with foreign investment outstripping domestic growth by four times (£1.3bn compared with £336m).
• Industry income for knowledge exchange activities (excluding licensing) received by universities increased by 4.5% in real terms - £906m in 2014 to £947m.
• Postgraduate employment and commercialisation activities are also growing.
• Despite previous concerns, the size of average deals with businesses, small and large, is holding.
• The National Centre is delighted to see such strong examples of university-business partnerships, and believe these could be further strengthened, particularly in the following areas:

Cross-disciplinary problem solving.
New ways of progressing into higher education through, for example, degree apprenticeships. More...