Last year small and medium sized enterprises spent £193m working

with higher education institutions in the UK, but that pales in

comparison to the public sector, charities and social enterprises who
invested £1,288m to access the latest in research, innovation and
graduate talent.

Role of Universities & SME

1. Universities can help you find the best graduates

By getting involved with a higher education institution SME have the
ability to shape the future. University placement schemes require
reliable local business partners to offer internships and projects for
students to work on. SME will have the benefit of exciting new talent at
very low cost.

Universities often offer professional development and staff training to

help give SME existing team skills. And once SME started working with a
university they'll want help to design courses and assessments that
meet the needs of local employers. Goldsmiths, for example, has
established a new research centre which will shape the future of the
computer games industry, all with the help of digital employers.
2. Universities can lend their equipment
Small businesses spent £49m in 2011 to access university equipment,
but not everyone knows what's out there. At the early stages of
establishing a small business, investing in technology and facilities can
prove risky and expensive. Whether it's laboratory time, hightech IT
equipment or simply space to hold meetings, many universities will
lend you theirs for a small fee.

3. Academic staff
To make the most of a local university, SME should consider signing up
to a Knowledge Transfer Partnership. This government funded scheme
places a trained academic inside your business to help you with a
specific project lasting between six and 36 months. If you're looking to
grow your business but worry about expanding, this is a really useful
way to manage a major work stream.

4. Access to cutting edge research

Working with university researchers means you'll have the latest
studies and innovations at your fingertips, ahead of your competition. If
your field matches the interests of a local research team or
department, they'll work with you to turn an idea into a real business
opportunity.

Researchers and engineers at the University of Southampton, for

example, worked with local firm CJR Propulsion to produce a modelling
tool, which allows the company to optimize their propeller designs
based on a ship's speed and performance.

5. Universities bring small businesses together

Universities can bring your business together with other likeminded
entrepreneurs, providing support and assistance and helping to broker
new working relationships. Many universities host local economic
growth hubs or business incubators to help small organizations and
startups get off the ground.

On the south coast, Brighton FUSE is a project that brings academics

and entrepreneurs in the arts, humanities, design and digital sectors
together in a cluster to map and measure how they can support one
another. Similar schemes are starting to take shape across the rest of
the UK.

Company collaboration with Universities

• Access to new ideas and technologies that create competitive
advantage, reduction in their own R&D cost, greater speed to market
with new technology, recruitment and retention of staff, and access to
highly specialized university facilities

• Lack of in-house R&D

• Access to the university’s physical facilities and the expertise of its
staff
• Access to the research and consulting services of university
• Improved public image in society
• Improving sales and profitability
• Increase qualification level of employees
• Creating innovation culture in their institutions
• Gaining technical knowledge
• Recruiting graduates
• Quality improvements

Promoting University-Industry Technology Transfer

• Improvements in Technology transfer processes include a greater
intermediary involvement, better rewards for inventors, better
government funding of near to market technologies, greater availability
of financial resources, and the availability of experienced technology
transfer office staff

• Availability of an appropriate organizational structure, processes and

context within the university is crucial in order to channel academic
R&D towards exploitation.

• Governmental policies can encourage companies to develop

partnerships with universities e.g. by providing tax incentives and
funding programmes that require companies to work with universities
as a condition of their funding