Accompanying research on the “Research Campus – Public Private Partnership for Innovations” funding initiative

The “Research Campus – pro-active” Accompanying Research Project

The “Research Campus – pro-active” research project to accompany the “Research Campus – Public-Private Partnership for Innovation” funding initiative was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for a period of four years (November 2012 to October 2016). Its aim was to make experience with the implementation of strategic research collaborations available to a wide circle of companies and research institutions.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) and the Institute for Innovation and Technology (iit) of the VDI/VDE (Association of German Engineers/Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies) have accompanied the BMBF’s funding initiative with regard to cross-cutting aspects and international comparisons. The work of the accompanying research team focused on three areas:

  1. The knowledge base. The researchers studied various models for strategic partnerships between science and industry both in Germany and abroad on the basis of research questions.
  2. Communication. Workshops on strategic topics such as legal forms or communication were held in order to enable an exchange between the research campuses. In addition, two conferences helped to present the work of the research campuses to a wide public.
  3. Monitoring. Standardized questionnaires and personal interviews with the research campuses enabled the accompanying research team to follow the development of the research campuses.

The accompanying research project has extended the knowledge base on strategic partnerships between science and industry and supports continuous exchanges between all those involved. The slant of the two conferences in particular gave the research campuses the opportunity to present themselves jointly and to strengthen the “Research Campus” trademark.

The results of the accompanying research were summarized in various publications which are available on the website of the Fraunhofer ISI .