Tech Industries Make Major Investments in University-Industry Partnerships

As the 2015-2016 academic year comes to a close, universities and their industry partners have announced several new university-industry partnerships to leverage university research capabilities to address industry needs. Fortune 500 companies including IBM, Rolls-Royce, and several pharma companies have agreed to commit millions of dollars to support these partnerships targeted at increasing the pace of scientific discovery as well as training the next generation of STEM professionals. Partnerships have been announced in Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and internationally in Canada and Switzerland.

Purdue University and Rolls-Royce have announced a $33 million joint research program focused on jet-engine research and development. The intent of the program is to create next-generation aircraft propulsion systems. Building upon a long-term relationship, the program will establish two research centers in the areas of thermal management systems and advanced compressor systems according to the Lafayette Journal & Courier.

Northeastern announced a $12 million nanotech consortium comprised of itself, several industry partners, and two other universities – Tufts University and University of Massachusetts Boston. The new consortium will work to develop smart sensors and other nanomaterials, or extremely small components that are built by “nanoscale” printing processes to accelerate the growth of the Internet of Things. The intent is for the research to have an impact on a broad area of commercial and everyday life including monitoring of premature babies in hospitals, measurement of water quality and personal tracking of biometric data through wearable devices. Called the Advanced Nanomanufacturing Cluster for Smart Sensors and Materials, the group received a five-year $3 million grant from the state. Northeastern has previously received over $4 million in funding related to nanonmanufacturing from the state and the National Science Foundation.

In the past month, the University of Michigan and the University of South Carolina announced partnerships with IBM to increase the pace of scientific discovery in supercomputing systems, computing technologies, and data analytics. IBM’s University of Michigan partnership will focus on the creation of data-centric supercomputing systems for a diverse number of fields including aircraft and rocket engine design, cardiovascular disease treatment, materials physics, climate modeling, and cosmology. The partnership will continue the work that IBM and University of Michigan have started with ConFlux – a computing resource to enable high performance computing clusters to communicate directly and at interactive speeds with data-intensive operations.

The University of South Carolina (USC) and IBM opened its new Center for Applied Innovation – a center designed to facilitate research efforts between USC, IBM and other industry partners.  It will concentrate on computing technologies and data analytics demanded by global businesses as well as research on the emerging field of the Internet of Things. The State reports the new center will provide students with access to IBM mentors and IBM will partner with faculty to study real world problems. The center also will engage USC students to have industry-related work experiences and perform applied research. IBM has committed to move 60 research-focused employees into the facility.

The University of Chicago (UChicago) and AbbVie, a global biopharmaceutical company, agreed to a five-year research collaboration agreement designed to improve the pace of discovery and advance medical research in oncology according to the UChicagoNews. The two organizations will select research projects via a joint steering committee. In return for significant funding contributions, AbbVie will gain an option for an exclusive license to certain UChicago discoveries made under the agreement. As part of the collaborative agreement, researchers from the University of Chicago and AbbVie will participate in an annual symposium that brings together scientists from both institutions to discuss research and evaluate potential new projects.

The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (Pitt-Johnstown) announced a new formal relationship with Johnstown-based Concurrent Technologies Corp. (CTC) to broaden an already close relationship between the two, according to The Tribune-Democrat. The strategic academic-industry partnership will provide increased hands-on research opportunities for faculty and students in the areas of chemical, computer, electrical and mechanical engineering. CTC and Pitt-Johnstown have already had a long-standing internship partnership that has led to CTC hiring over 120 Pitt-Johnstown graduates.

The Canadian government announced funding to support two university-industry partnerships between McMasters University and Canadian industries to address important challenges facing the automotive and nuclear energy industries. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council will commit up to C$3.3 million (2.6 million USD) in funding from its Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) Program, which trains the next generation of researchers to tackle Canada's most pressing scientific challenges. The first project, called the Canadian Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Resilience under Seismic Systemic Risk (CaNRisk) program, will connect faculty and students with some of Canada's key nuclear stakeholders through research projects and student internship opportunities. Under the CREATE Program, the government also announced funding to a second project focused on addressing challenges related to hybrid electric vehicle powertrain design and development.

The University World News reports that several large global pharma companies have announced a partnership with Swiss Universities. Roche, Novartis, Merck Serono, and Interpharma – a pharma industry lobby group – will provide funding for professional seats and/or research at the universities of Bern and Basel, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. Over the next 25-years, the pharma companies will commit up to CHF12.5 million (12.9 million USD) in grants per year.