Draft:University corporate engagement

University corporate engagement (UCE) is a function within universities that facilitates and manages partnerships between academic institutions and corporate entities. The UCE function helps to identify potential partners and collaborates with them to develop mutually beneficial relationships that can result in various forms of engagement, such as research collaborations, technology transfer, student internships and placements, joint projects, and other forms of knowledge exchange.

The UCE function typically includes a team of professionals who work to identify and establish relationships with potential industry partners. This team may include individuals with backgrounds in business development, marketing, technology transfer, and research administration.

The university corporate engagement function encompasses a set of proactive, reactive, tactical, strategic, catalytic, liaison, and capacity-, relationship- and partnership- building activities between a university or college and local, national and international companies with the objective of developing and supporting the research, innovation, educational and economic development missions of the higher education institution. The relevance, significance and challenges of university-industry relations across the globe has been discussed and reviewed in the literature. Academic corporate engagement can be facilitated by academic functional units such as Corporate Engagement, Corporate Relations, University Industry Relations, Industry Engagement, Corporate Partnerships, Industry Partnerships and External Partnerships.

The professionalization of academic corporate relations is recognized by several organizations including the Network of Academic Corporate Relations Officers (NACRO), the University Industry Partnerships (UIDP), the Association of University Research Parks, the University Industry Innovation Network (UIIN), and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) that considers it a specialized subset of educational advancement. Comprehensive academic corporate engagement has been discussed in several articles and was captured in a 2011 white paper, "Five Essential Elements of a Successful Twenty-First Century University Corporate Relations Program", by the Network of Academic Corporate Relations Officers (NACRO) organization.

The work product of the Corporate Engagement professional includes strengthened and improved relationships, partnerships and research collaborations with specific companies and industry sectors. The quality of relationships and partnerships can be assessed by quantitative and qualitative measures, which will vary by institution.

The reporting function of Corporate Engagement can be organized in various ways, including reporting to the highest university leadership, campus leadership or embedded in multiple functionally distinct units (e.g. School of Engineering, Corporate and Foundation Engagement Office, Career Services Office, Research Administration Office, etc.). Regardless of the university organizational structure that the Corporate Engagement function reports into, the overarching activities of Corporate Engagement are necessary for relationship building, resource development and partnership building, and are often focused on building long-term strategic partnerships between academic faculty and industry. The Corporate Engagement function is more likely to be successful if there is a coordinated comprehensive plan that coordinates various CE functionalities at the institution and has the stated support of institutional leadership. The activities of University Corporate Engagement cab vary by institution and subdivision but generally mirror the interests of industry.

Some of the key activities of the Corporate Engagement functions include:


 * 1) Relationship building: This involves identifying potential partners and building relationships with them through meetings, conferences, and other networking events.  Relationship building may include facilitating student engagement and recruitment at the university and developing executive education opportunities.
 * 2) Partnership development: Once a potential partner has been identified, the UCE team will work to develop a mutually beneficial partnership that aligns with the university's research strengths and strategic priorities.  Partnership development may include: identifying faculty expertise that aligns with the interests of industry; research development for basic research, clinical research,clinical trials, applied research, triple-helix (government, industry, academia) research; developing leads for licensing, technology transfer and research commercialization; finding business development opportunities on behalf of Startup companies spun out of the university; Facilitating the co-location of industry and startups on or near campus; fundraising and developing philanthropic resources in support university programs
 * 3) Agreement management:  Specific to each institution, the UCE professional may be involved in agreements, contracts and intellectual property management. They may facilitate agreements, participate in the negotiation of terms between the university and its industry partners, liaise with the university sponsored research office and university technology transfer office.
 * 4) Marketing and communications: The UCE team will work to promote the university's research capabilities and achievements to potential industry partners, as well as internally within the university community.

Activities
Agreements – At most institutions the activity of contract negotiation and agreement terms management is the responsibility of offices set up to do contracting, such as Research Administration, Advancement and Development, General Counsel, Finance, and Procurement. The agreements generally fall into one of three types and managed by different institutional offices. (A) Research grants, contracts, technology licensing are typically managed by the institutional Research Administration; (B) philanthropy is managed by institutional Development and Advancement; (C) event sponsorships may be managed by the institutional offices of Advancement, Procurement, Athletics.

Capstone projects – defined as industry-led, fee-based projects or assignments given to students within a certain major that results in a presentation, demonstration, paper, or actual product.

Co-location – UIDP defines co-location as “the purposeful combination of industry and university personnel in a dedicated space in which costs are shared for active collaborative or independent research with the strategic intent of encouraging idea exchange by reducing communication and cultural barriers that accompany the physical challenge of being located in different facilities.” The Association for University Research Parks is a non-profit international organization that supports research institute-industry relations and innovation districts.

Core facilities – defined as specialized laboratories with instruments and services, managed by scientists with the technical expertise and experience to help industry partners who need access to these capabilities. They are operated as fee-for-service laboratories in which users pay for training, use of instruments, consulting, and specialized services

Data, databases, analytics and reporting – defined as any activity related to data management in customer relationship management (CRM) databases, sponsored research grant management software, data analytics and reporting that illustrate and assess the quality and quantity of industry partnerships.

Executive education – refers to academic programs at graduate-level business schools for executives, business leaders and functional managers globally. These programs are generally non-credit and non-degree-granting, but sometimes lead to certificates and some offer continuing education units accepted by professional bodies and institutes.

Faculty expertise – defined as any activities that lead to identifying, matching, and connecting faculty to industry and industry interests.

Industry engagement – defined as any activity that facilitates industry participation in campus activities including speaking and teaching engagement, workshop and conference attendance, board membership activities, and special events.

Licensing and technology transfer – defined as assisting faculty navigate through technology transfer administrative structures within an academic institution.

Philanthropy or fundraising – defined as charitable giving, a donation of cash, assets (i.e., real estate, stocks, cryptocurrency, collectibles), or gifts-in-kind (i.e., equipment) to support university priorities. Philanthropic activities are typically under the direction of a University Advancement division, Development department, and a stand-alone Corporate Engagmenet team or under Corporate and Foundation Relations.

Research development - defined as matching aligned industry and researcher interests that can lead to a collaboration on research projects, development of new technologies and intellectual property.

Research proposals support – defined as activities that facilitate and result in support of research (basic, applied and clinical) by industry. Advise faculty on framing research collaboration scope. Assisting faculty to find industry funding opportunities. Newsletters and Listserv announcements of funding opportunities. Sourcing industry RFPs. Assisting faculty navigate through administrative structures within their institution. Grant proposal writing and editing.

Student engagement and recruitment – defined as activities that provide interaction between students and industry representatives with the industry goal of possible talent acquisition and the institutional goal of providing experiential learning opportunities and good job prospects. Sourcing industry projects for project-based learning or senior design capstone projects. Organize inaugural student engagement events. Host industry representatives at student engagement events.

Related Articles and external links:

 * 1) Engagement of Academic Corporate Relations Officers in University-Industry Centers of Research Excellence
 * 2) Metrics for a Successful Twenty-First Century Academic Corporate Relations Program
 * 3) Evaluating the Role of Science Philanthropy in American Research Universities Evaluating the Role of Science Philanthropy in American Research Universities
 * 4) The economics of university research parks
 * 5) Desire for more holistic approach drives new industry engagement structures Desire for more holistic approach drives new industry engagement structures - University-Industry Engagement Week
 * 6) Developing Successful Strategic Partnerships With Universities Developing Successful Strategic Partnerships With Universities
 * 7) New position at Rutgers is part of “reimagined” corporate engagement team - University-Industry Engagement Week
 * 8) Academic-Corporate Engagement: Strategic and Organizational Best Practices
 * 9) Develop a holistic corporate engagement strategy
 * 10) University-Business Engagement through the lens of a large university University-Business Engagement through the lens of a large university