This PLOS Community Guide breaks down university – industry collaboration into manageable steps, with an emphasis on clarity of expectations and mutual benefit. While framed for early career researchers, it is very transferable for established researchers who want to formalise external collaboration or scale it without creating avoidable risk.
The guide will help you to:
- Understand common models of university – industry collaboration and what each is suited for
- Set expectations early on goals, timelines, outputs, publications, and confidentiality
- Anticipate practical issues such as IP, data sharing, and managing different incentives and the benefits of active engagement with Research and Innovation teams.
What will you take forward?
One thing to consider: What are the three expectations you most need to make explicit at the start (outputs, timelines, IP/publication), and what do you assume the partner expects?
“Not all networking needs to result in an immediate output or grant. There is value in simply keeping in touch.”
Professor of Biomechanics. Read more from this career story.
Related Tags
Related Resouces
See all Established Researcher resources
Creating space for scholarship: what writing retreats can teach us
Explore how writing retreat research can help create the conditions for sustained scholarship, wellbeing and intellectual engagement.
Strategic planning – envision and plan into the future
Turn big career ideas into a coherent strategy you can articulate to funders, potential collaborators, or senior colleagues
Stepping Up: Insights Into the Realities of Senior Leadership Roles in UK Higher Education
Hear honest reflections on stepping into senior roles, including the realities people rarely talk about.
Peer Discussion Guide: Designing the lab environment
This guide curates a small selection of related resources and offers a light structure for reflection and conversation.
Sign up to our newsletter
The White Rose University Consortium actively engages with institutional, regional and national partners to propel positive change and create sustained impact for individuals, communities, and the region.
