PROJECT OBJECTIVE

From October 2013 until December 2014 Dynamic University contributed to the project “University – Business Cooperation through Success Stories” (UBC). The objective of the project was to promote cooperation between research and higher education institutions and the private sector through provision of examples of successful cooperation projects, resulting in mutual benefit. This was achieved through the analysis of already successful instances of such cooperation in order to understand the prerequisites for successful, meaningful and valuable cooperation as evaluated by actors involved and through collection and publication of noteworthy case study examples. Project’s leading partner was NGO “Knowledge Triangle Network” and it involved institutions from seven countries – Latvia (University of Latvia and Employers’ Confederation of Latvia), Lithuania (Vilnius University and SMK University), Estonia (Tallinn Technical University), Finland (University of Turku), Sweden (Lund University’s Innovation System), Norway (University of Stavanger) and Denmark (IT University of Copenhagen).

The role of Dynamic University within this project was to provide assistance with the development of success criteria, attract possible contributors (universities and businesses), as well as to contribute its know-how to the research.

PROJECT SOLUTION AND RESULT

The main deliverables of the project are an electronic data-base, which contains selected case studies collected during the project, as well as the UBC Handbook. The Handbook contains main takeaways from six areas of cooperation that were explored during the project:

• research and development;
• curriculum development and delivery;
• governance;
• commercialisation;
• lifelong learning;
• mobility.

Furthermore, the Handbook contains description of general and practical factors that influence the likelihood of success of a UBC cooperation project, as well as specific recommendations as to the steps that should be taken by universities, businesses and policy makers to create an environment conducive to cooperation between academia and the industry. Additionally, the Handbook explores such aspects of university and business cooperation as finances and infrastructure, human capital, marketing and communication.

UBC project’s website features all the deliverables and results of the project: http://www.university-business.net/en