Industry and Higher Education

European universities have three main tasks: education, research and service to the community. This last element of their mission is becoming more and more important, and the pressure on universities to engage in activities related to regional development is increasing. The creation of knowledge is not something that a university does in isolation: it is a process that depends on cooperation with others. The interaction of university with its region, and with industry based in the region, is vitally important. This introductory article sketches the background to this special issue of Industry and Higher Education, dedicated to the theme ‘The region and its university: European perspectives’.

The European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) was established in 1996. This network of universities currently has eleven partners and two associate partners. All the universities are ‘innovative’ and ‘entrepreneurial’ in research, education, or regional development (technology transfer) – or in more than one of these areas. In this paper ECIU activities in the context of regional development are described, especially in terms of the ways information is exchanged and shared. The exchange of information is not just among the ECIU partners: each university has around it an infrastructure that includes incubators, science parks and other regional entities, and the exchange of information extends to these organizations. The exchange of information and experience relating to best practice is important for the partners to sustain a ‘learning’ network in a ‘learning’ Europe.

In the 1990s Finland began to emphasize a ‘new’, expertise-based regional policy driven by local initiatives and networking. An essential part of this approach is the intertwining of the universities and regional development processes, in which a major role is played by such facilities as science parks. At the heart of the regional impact of the University of Joensuu is the research and training carried out in its basic academic units. The greatest regional effect of the university is due to its internationally competitive research and education, as well as to the development of strategic priority areas. The strategic focal points and strengths of the University of Joensuu, the Joensuu Science Park and the North Karelia region of Finland complement one another well. In addition to the university's own departments, a key channel for transferring expertise is the Joensuu Science Park. The park is responsible for technology transfer, training, development measures and networking with other actors in their fields of expertise.

The University of Warwick is one of the UK's top five universities, dedicated to providing research and teaching of an international standard. While the university does function within the national and international contexts, it also places great value on regional (the English West Midlands) and sub-regional (the city of Coventry and the county of Warwickshire) involvement. It is argued that the university makes a strong contribution to the regional economy through The University of Warwick Science Park, the Warwick Manufacturing Group, the Warwick Business School, and other academic departments. Funding through the Higher Education Reach-Out to Business and the Community Scheme (HEROBC) has served to broaden and deepen the university's already substantial regional engagement while allowing it to maintain its national and international roles.

From 1998 to 2001 a consortium of regional partners – the University of Twente, the Enschede Foundation Business & Science Park, the Regional Development Agency, and the Municipality of Enschede – carried out a project to attract new business to the area of Twente and to the Business & Science Park in particular. In that period, a well-functioning structure for cooperation among the partners was established in order to attract companies in sectors related to the principal research areas of the university Cooperation in the consortium is analysed using the ‘4S’ model (scope of cooperation; skills; scale; social networks) to identify the added value of the partners in this endeavour. It emerges that the four parties were complementary to each other. In total, some 13 companies have been attracted to the region, 161 jobs have been created and it is expected that in the next five years those 13 companies will create around 250 new jobs. Interviews were carried out with the companies to assess the value for them of the university's technology research and facilities. The results indicate that the technological expertise of the university was and remains one of the key attractions of the region for the companies.

In Germany, the recently launched ‘Dortmund Project’ can be seen as marking the beginning of long-term cooperation between the city of Dortmund and the Universität Dortmund (the University of Dortmund). The development of this strategic cooperation is closely connected with the general development of Dortmund's municipal economic policy It has been the change from a Fordist to a Post-Fordist model that has finally resulted in new approaches towards regional structural policy – as reflected, for example, in the strategy to achieve cluster development. The Dortmund Project, which was initiated by Thyssen-Krupp and the city of Dortmund, aims to strengthen the economic efficiency of Dortmund through the establishment of growth clusters. To this end, the Dortmund Project prioritizes three sectors: information technology; microsystems technology; and logistics – all three of which are core areas of expertise at the Universität Dortmund.

The relevance of university-industry relationships to economic development is matched by the prolific research work that has been carried out on the interaction between the academic sector and productive systems. However, this research is almost exclusively focused on technology transfer. Considering the context of the emerging knowledge-driven economy in which institutional capacity emerges as a major competitive factor, this paper argues that there is a need to broaden the analytical framework in relation to university-industry links. This argument is based on the perception that universities can play a major role in building regional institutional capacity. The case of the University of Aveiro is explored to illustrate this additional dimension of university-industry interaction.

In this paper the author describes activities at Aalborg University, Denmark, and gives examples of how a university, together with its regional partners, can actively influence and support the development of new high-technology knowledge-based industry clusters. In order for a region to achieve an internationally recognized cluster that can act as an engine for broader regional development, widespread local support is essential. The author argues that the most effective and long-lasting clusters are those that benefit from the support of a wide range of regional players. With this in mind, she presents two different approaches to cluster development in the region of Northern Jutland through a discussion of its telecommunications and biomedical technology clusters.