Matéria interessante sobre as parcerias entre universidades e empresas. É um pouco longa mas comenta com detalhes algumas parcerias feitas no ano fiscal de 2015 encerrado agora em Abril.
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As the 2015-2016 academic year comes to a close, universities and
their industry partners have announced several new university-industry
partnerships to leverage university research capabilities to address
industry needs. Fortune 500 companies including IBM, Rolls-Royce, and
several pharma companies have agreed to commit millions of dollars to
support these partnerships targeted at increasing the pace of scientific
discovery as well as training the next generation of STEM
professionals. Partnerships have been announced in Illinois, Indiana,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and
internationally in Canada and Switzerland.
Purdue University and Rolls-Royce have announced
a $33 million joint research program focused on jet-engine research and
development. The intent of the program is to create next-generation
aircraft propulsion systems. Building upon a long-term relationship, the
program will establish two research centers in the areas of thermal
management systems and advanced compressor systems according to the Lafayette Journal & Courier.
Northeastern announced
a $12 million nanotech consortium comprised of itself, several industry
partners, and two other universities – Tufts University and University
of Massachusetts Boston. The new consortium will work to develop smart
sensors and other nanomaterials, or extremely small components that are
built by “nanoscale” printing processes to accelerate the growth of the
Internet of Things. The intent is for the research to have an impact on a
broad area of commercial and everyday life including monitoring of
premature babies in hospitals, measurement of water quality and personal
tracking of biometric data through wearable devices. Called the
Advanced Nanomanufacturing Cluster for Smart Sensors and Materials, the
group received a five-year $3 million grant from the state. Northeastern
has previously received over $4 million in funding related to
nanonmanufacturing from the state and the National Science Foundation.
In the past month, the University of Michigan and the University of
South Carolina announced partnerships with IBM to increase the pace of
scientific discovery in supercomputing systems, computing technologies,
and data analytics. IBM’s University of Michigan partnership
will focus on the creation of data-centric supercomputing systems for a
diverse number of fields including aircraft and rocket engine design,
cardiovascular disease treatment, materials physics, climate modeling,
and cosmology. The partnership will continue the work that IBM and
University of Michigan have started with ConFlux – a computing resource
to enable high performance computing clusters to communicate directly
and at interactive speeds with data-intensive operations.
The University of South Carolina (USC) and IBM opened its new Center
for Applied Innovation – a center designed to facilitate research
efforts between USC, IBM and other industry partners. It will
concentrate on computing technologies and data analytics demanded by
global businesses as well as research on the emerging field of the
Internet of Things. The State reports
the new center will provide students with access to IBM mentors and IBM
will partner with faculty to study real world problems. The center also
will engage USC students to have industry-related work experiences and
perform applied research. IBM has committed to move 60 research-focused
employees into the facility.
The University of Chicago (UChicago) and AbbVie, a global
biopharmaceutical company, agreed to a five-year research collaboration
agreement designed to improve the pace of discovery and advance medical
research in oncology according to the UChicagoNews.
The two organizations will select research projects via a joint
steering committee. In return for significant funding contributions,
AbbVie will gain an option for an exclusive license to certain UChicago
discoveries made under the agreement. As part of the collaborative
agreement, researchers from the University of Chicago and AbbVie will
participate in an annual symposium that brings together scientists from
both institutions to discuss research and evaluate potential new
projects.
The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (Pitt-Johnstown) announced a
new formal relationship with Johnstown-based Concurrent Technologies
Corp. (CTC) to broaden an already close relationship between the two,
according to The Tribune-Democrat.
The strategic academic-industry partnership will provide increased
hands-on research opportunities for faculty and students in the areas of
chemical, computer, electrical and mechanical engineering. CTC and
Pitt-Johnstown have already had a long-standing internship partnership
that has led to CTC hiring over 120 Pitt-Johnstown graduates.
The Canadian government announced funding
to support two university-industry partnerships between McMasters
University and Canadian industries to address important challenges
facing the automotive and nuclear energy industries. The Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council will commit up to C$3.3
million (2.6 million USD) in funding from its Collaborative Research and
Training Experience (CREATE) Program, which trains the next generation
of researchers to tackle Canada's most pressing scientific challenges.
The first project, called the Canadian Nuclear Energy Infrastructure
Resilience under Seismic Systemic Risk (CaNRisk) program, will connect
faculty and students with some of Canada's key nuclear stakeholders
through research projects and student internship opportunities. Under
the CREATE Program, the government also announced funding to a second
project focused on addressing challenges related to hybrid electric
vehicle powertrain design and development.
The University World News reports
that several large global pharma companies have announced a partnership
with Swiss Universities. Roche, Novartis, Merck Serono, and Interpharma
– a pharma industry lobby group – will provide funding for professional
seats and/or research at the universities of Bern and Basel, and the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. Over the next 25-years,
the pharma companies will commit up to CHF12.5 million (12.9 million
USD) in grants per year.
(from http://ssti.org/blog/tech-industries-make-major-investments-university-industry-partnerships)
