UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY EXPERIENCES. CASE OF A UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY-ADMINISTRATION AGREEMENT
Year: 2015
Editor: Guy Bingham, Darren Southee, John McCardle, Ahmed Kovacevic, Erik Bohemia, Brian Parkinson
Author: Lloveras, Joaquim
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Universitat Politčcnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Section: Collaboration
Page(s): 044-049
ISBN: 978-1-904670-62-9
Abstract
This article describes the author’s experience in R&D projects developed in collaboration with industrial companies or the state administration ─agreements─ and their relation with university education. In the last sixteen years he has been the head researcher in nineteen agreements: sixteen with companies, one with the state administration and a medical institution, one with the administration and a company, and one with the administration. As can be seen, the author’s collaborative preference lies with companies, usually in the form of small agreements with local SMEs which put an emphasis on the conceptual design of product engineering. The results of these collaborations are product designs and patents. These agreements are legal contracts between the company managers and the Rector of University. This article presents three examples of agreements. More specifically described is a University-Industry-Administration project, or "triple helix", to redesign Barcelona’s rubbish containers for adaptation to wheelchair users. From the educational point of view, the results of these projects led to an increase in participants’ knowledge and practice, including the lecturer, who directly or indirectly transferred the knowledge gained to the classroom.
Keywords: University research, triple helix, education