Research Co-Design

In academia there is a strong push to forge meaningful partnerships with external industry and community. There are various reasons for this including to help generate income, expand networks, increase institutional reputation – but importantly it is also to try and make sure that the research conducted has practical and real-world impacts that tackle important social challenges and drive economic growth. However this is challenging territory in both corporate and not-for-profit (NFP) sectors. For corporate partnerships, the two sides – academic and business – have very distinct cultures and different incentives for establishing partnerships. For NFP partners, while the incentive to contribute to public good is shared, the challenges may be operational, e.g. funding to keep abreast and in the lead of latest technological innovation. Academics are not often trained in how to effectively engage and manage these relationships, and organisations are often unaware of the relevance of academic research. So, as design academics we asked; can we leverage a human-centred approach to help create more effective university-industry collaborations? By sharing three case studies, and contextualising our reflections within a co-design model, we hope to provide academics with useful insights to help establish, build and manage these important collaborations in the future.