Three ways for universities to collaborate with industry

Knowledge transfer should be a guiding mission of higher education, offering benefits to wider society, innovation and entrepreneurship. But, if it presents a challenge to your university, working alongside industry can be a way in. Here, we’ll cover three ways to do so.

Internships and academic projects

The most common forms of collaboration with industry are through internships and academic projects. Projects like these help students gain experience in real-world environments, while companies find it attractive to recruit interns for specific projects or activities. They’re interested in identifying talent at an early stage, and higher education is precisely where that talent is developed. 

Make students visible to industry, creating opportunities for engagement with job fairs, business networking events and academic visits to industry. Our aim should be to place students in internships where the relationship is truly beneficial to all parties.

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An example of how this type of collaboration can be strengthened beyond traditional internships took place towards the end of 2025, when faculty members at our university implemented a challenge-based learning experience within the course Introduction to Renewable Energies. 

Students were challenged to design and build a solar-powered fruit dehydrator, addressing both technical and sustainability considerations. As part of the challenge-based learning model, academic staff invited a “training partner” from industry, aligned with the core theme of the challenge. In this case, we approached local companies working in the dried fruit sector. 

After meeting, these companies agreed to collaborate by sharing their industry experience, discussing the real-world challenges they had faced as entrepreneurs and providing technical guidance to support the students’ design process. They had great enthusiasm for knowledge transfer and the collaboration allowed them to become familiar with our innovation ecosystem and broader opportunities for academia-industry engagement. This initial experience laid the groundwork for a longer-term partnership, which remains active today and has already opened the door to future joint initiatives.

On-demand projects, consulting and on-demand research

Prestigious universities, especially in developed nations, are often approached by companies to work towards solutions for specific problems. But new universities, and those in developing countries, will find their opportunities limited in this area. We can still leverage higher education’s strengths: talented faculty, the infrastructure available to us – such as research centres and digital platforms – and of course, our students.

In some cases, companies opt for university collaboration to avoid the significant investment it would take to acquire these capabilities solo. Let’s be aware of this advantage and capitalise on it to strengthen ties and establish long-term agreements.

From our experience, one effective way to overcome the initial barriers to university-industry collaboration in developing countries is through the strategic involvement of the public sector. This approach is particularly viable when the institution has an internal laboratory, centre or institute dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship. 

Through such structures, a wide range of collaboration opportunities with both private and public stakeholders can emerge. In many contexts, companies – especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises – do not allocate sufficient resources to in-house research and development, which can make direct engagement with universities challenging. 

To address this, we partnered with the public sector, specifically Mexico’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce, whose mandate includes strengthening business capabilities and competitiveness. Together, we designed a publicly funded support programme aimed at digitising these businesses. 

The outcome was highly positive: the programme, now operating under the name Activa 4.0, currently involves faculty members and researchers who deliver diagnostics, training workshops, mentoring and continuous support to participating companies. This experience demonstrates how universities can act as trusted intermediaries, aligning public policy objectives with academic expertise and private sector needs.

Co-creation and co-research

Partnerships that co-exist around a clear purpose, with resources contributed by both parties, are perhaps the most virtuous form of university-industry collaboration. For example, when the university contributes faculty time and infrastructure, while the company contributes expert time and financial resources. 

Engaging with industry might be seen as taboo among academics but with a clear strategy, relationships can be developed relatively quickly and can yield positive results. For a smooth process, it’s worth making sure everyone who interacts with industry understands the different forms of collaboration and the high value the private sector places on university resources. As a result, relationships will be long-lasting and well-balanced, benefiting the academic community and society as a whole.

Adopt a clear academia-industry engagement model within your institution, and communicate it to all staff. This will build strong, lasting and consistent relationships with industry partners.

Based on our own experience, seeking out opportunities, trusting internal institutional capabilities and empowering colleagues to innovate, experiment and collaborate without fear of failure is crucial. Creating the conditions for engagement – rather than waiting for industry to initiate contact – has proven, for us, a decisive factor in building sustainable and meaningful partnerships.

Julian C. Pena-Bermudez is vice-rector for research at Universidad del Caribe (UNICARIBE).

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