BUSINESS
Better together: why business and academia are pairing up Businesses and universities are seeking ever-closer ties to foster innovation. We spot the five key trends in collaboration, and find out why Lithuania is leading the pack.
The last decade has seen an explosion in the number of collaborative relationships between business and universities. It’s easy to see why: at a time when commercial R&D budgets are under increasing pressure, such partnerships enable companies to spend more wisely – and giving them access to cutting-edge research talent. For universities, there’s the draw of financial support and partnership.
And when it comes to cooperation, one European nation is conspicuously ahead of the curve: Lithuania, home to a fastgrowing global business services sector, and a centre of innovation in fintech. We take a look at the key trends shaping the market and examine the secrets of the Baltic state’s success. LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS
Science and business need to work closely together to achieve mutually beneficial goals – Petras Baršauskas, former Rector, Kaunas Technology University. But the benefits of cooperation are about more than simply cost savings. Stronger ties between industry and academia enable both sides to achieve things that were previously impossible, delivering innovation in fields from life sciences and biomedical engineering to communications, environmental sciences, artificial intelligence, and more.
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Instead of one-off, ad hoc projects, businesses from many sectors are forging long-term, collaborative relationships with universities and other academic institutions. These educational and research bodies, for their part, benefit from long-term funding stability and closer ties with the business community that provide valuable market insights, skills and technical expertise.
Examples can be found in the relationships that US technology company Cognizant is building with Lithuanian universities. The country is at the forefront of a truly international market in business services, and companies investing in Lithuania are no longer simply looking
for English-speaking talent. Cognizant’s operations in the country focus on the Nordic market, and company consequently needs qualified specialists with good Scandinavian language skills. Rather than simply investing in on-the-job training, Cognizant has built longer-term links with universities to supply the skills it needs. Besides helping future professionals expand their language portfolio, it now also offers students from the ISM University of Management and Economics the possibility to gain first-hand business consulting experience. US healthcare giant Intermedix is another major international player building longterm relationships with Lithuanian universities. In 2015, the company invested more than 100,000 EUR into a specialist laboratory at the Kaunas Technology University (KTU) Faculty of Informatics, providing hardware and software for processing Big Data. The Creativity Lab partnership is just one part of an evolving, long-term relationship between the two: since Intermedix established its first European service centre in Lithuania in 2014, many of its staff have been either current students
Outsourcing&More | July – August 2018