Collaboration between Universities and Industry in the Global North and the Global South: Similarities and Differences

The growing reliance on knowledge by the knowledge economy has increased the relevance of higher-education institutions in society and the social sector. Higher education institutions are experiencing increasing pressure to add, besides teaching and research – or even to shift to – a ‘Third Mission’ of contributing to the social, cultural, and economic development of the surrounding regions, by transferring knowledge to a diverse array of external social and economic stakeholders. 

One of the key dimensions of the Third Mission are university-industry linkages or collaboration. A knowledge-based economy also strongly relies on partnerships between universities and companies. Companies approach universities, particularly research-intensive universities, to get innovations to sustain their competitiveness. Universities, facing financial constraints, ‘commodify’ their knowledge to serve companies, in what has become known as ‘academic capitalism’ or entrepreneurial universities. Governments support partnerships, through legislations and funding policies. However, the patterns of collaborations display some similarities and differences among countries from the Global North and the Global South.

Drawing from the examples of Germany and Mozambique, the objective of this workshop is to gather together people from different academic and non-academic institutions to reflect on and discuss the patterns of collaboration in the Global North and the Global South. The discussions will address the following questions: 

• What are the similarities and differences in knowledge transfer between science and industry / society in Mozambique and Germany? And how to bridge the two logics of academia and economics? 
• What are the differences and similarities between the two higher education systems of Mozambique and Germany? 
• What incentives exist for academics to engage in knowledge transfer? 
• Why do people from the business world get involved, and how do they establish contact with scientists? 

Participants will address these questions and cover some or all items indicated below: 

• Actors involved;
• Forms and modalities of collaboration;
• Types of knowledge and technology transferred;
• Modes of knowledge transfer or exchange;
• Benefits and constraints of collaboration;
• Success cases of collaboration