The Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre in Münster, Germany (S2BMRC) has just published the findings of a major study on University-Business Cooperation (UBC) in Europe. Commissioned by DG Education and Culture of the European Commission, the study investigated different forms of cooperation between HEIs and private and public organisations in Europe over a fifteen-and-a-half month period in 2010 and 2011. The study not only aims to measure the actual level of UBC (i.e. status quo) to provide a benchmark for European UBC, but also to outline potential reasons, influencing factors, drivers and barriers to UBC as well as to offer recommendations for the future.
The main components of the study were in-depth qualitative interviews with 10 recognised industry experts as well as a major quantitative survey. The survey was translated into 22 languages and sent to all registered European HEIs (numbering over 3,000) in 33 countries during March 2011. Through this, a final sample population of 6,280 academics and HEI representatives was achieved making the study the largest study into cooperation between HEIs and business yet completed in Europe. Furthermore, 30 good practice UBC case studies were written up to provide positive examples of European UBC.
The final report and case studies can be downloaded at http://www.ub-cooperation.eu/
Comments and feedback can be forwarded to one of the survey leaders, Todd Davey (BSc, MA), Manager, International Projects, Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre davey@fh-muenster.de

