With academic conferences on hold, novel ways of collaborating have taken off – from preprints and digital networks to AI-backed matchmaking
By Jack Grove
Connecting with business on research activities has also been tricky for researchers during the pandemic. According to a report by the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB), 45 per cent of UK universities stated that their innovation-focused activities with external partners had dropped in lockdown, with alliances with automotive and aerospace sectors hardest hit, down 30 per cent to 40 per cent in both cases.
With university campus visits and networking lunches proving difficult in recent times, NCUB is hoping that a new system called Konfer will reinvigorate these partnerships. Konfer provides suggestions for links between some 144,000 academics from UK universities and research institutes and more than 46,000 businesses, based on information scanned from 1.5 million research publications, grant-funded projects and case studies.
“The pandemic has highlighted the need for businesses to move quickly to find the right people – it’s not enough to rely on the same people in your contacts book,” says Joe Marshall, chief executive officer of NCUB’s AI-powered smart matching system.
This kind of matching could, in theory, disrupt the traditional model of university-industry partnership, which has often seen businesses turn to their local institution for R&D-related input, he says. “It’s about democratising opportunity, but also extending the reach of industry into academia by locating people that they did not know existed,” he adds.
The project might even lead to new streams of public or industry funding as novel patterns of university-private funding become more apparent, Marshall suggests.
“It provides a lot of analytics, so you can see emerging technologies appearing. And as those new concepts emerge, we hope to work with public and commercial funders in these areas,” he says.
The move to largely online research collaborations has, of course, not been entirely without pain.
“I was unable for a while to see my postdoc or visit workshops in the US, which has slowed my research down”, says rocket engineer Mike McCulloch, lecturer in geomatics at the University of Plymouth, who adds that cancelled trips to laboratories in Europe “caused serious misunderstandings” with collaborators.
Overall, however, he is positive about the new ways to communicate online – including Zoom – with colleagues.
“It has given me a much better way to disseminate my work and interact with others,” he reflects. “I have also saved stress and 8,000 miles by not travelling.”
This is an edited version of an article first published in the Times Higher Education on 31 August 2021.