Driving innovation by bridging out to academia
Innovation potential in academic research is relatively untapped
As individuals and collectively as a society, we all aspire to have a better life. Contrary to the perspective commonly presented by media outlets, society is arguably living its best years. As evidence for this, the average score of nations globally in the United Nations Human Development Index, a measure of the health, education, and standard of living of civilians, has increased 18% in the last 27 years [1].
Innovation has played a central role in delivering us a better life. One approach by governments globally to drive innovation has been to inject money into academic research. Government investment in medical research in the UK is estimated to have produced a 15% per annum return in terms of broader economic benefits [2]. Moreover, a recent KPMG report estimated that every $1 invested in medical research produces a $4 return in Australia [3]. A real-world example of this return on investment is the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil. The vaccine was founded on technology developed through academic research by Professor Ian Frazer and colleagues at the University of Queensland. Recent studies have shown that the annual incidence rates of cervical cancer have significantly declined following the introduction of Garadsil [4,5].
Government investment in academic research has built a wealth of knowledge and experts, however, in comparison, less effort has been focused on translating this knowledge and expertise into tangible products and services that positively impact society. Consequently, the innovation potential of academic research remains relatively untapped. The question is, how do we turn the tap to unlock this potential and make academic knowledge work?
The chasm between academia and industry blocks innovation
Academic institutions are skilled in research and education. What they are less skilled in is developing new products and services. That is the realm of “industry”. To unlock the innovation potential of academic research, industry and academic institutions must collaborate to translate research into novel products and services. In the case of Gardasil, the University of Queensland partnered with CSL, and later Merck, to translate their academic research and develop it into the vaccine Gardasil. Without this collaboration, Gardasil would not exist today.
Strategies to increase collaboration between industry and academic institutions are beginning to be established and implemented on mass. For instance, Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) identify and market research of commercial potential to industry, research partnership managers (RPMs) foster connections between researchers and industry, Tech Scouts from industry seek out lucrative intellectual property (IP) generated from research to acquire and Industry Bodies support the health of industry through encouraging investment.
However, barriers to collaboration between academia and industry currently exist. For instance, academic researchers are often driven by curiosity, whilst industry research and development is driven by the desire to grow profits. In order to gain recognition and therefore funding through grants, academics are incentivized to publish their research findings in journals, whilst companies are incentivized to keep their work secret to protect the intellectual property that may provide them an advantage over competitors. Additionally, academic research is made public knowledge in packages in the form of publications that represent a whole body of work that occurred in the past. No current platform exists to provide recognition for individual pieces of academic research. Given this and the intense competition for funding, researchers are reluctant to share their work-in-progress for fear of being “scooped” by competitors. Consequently, there is a lack of visibility from the perspective of the industry into academic research currently being conducted. These barriers primarily stem from a misalignment of incentives and interests, creating a chasm that isolates both parties from each other, restricting collaboration and blocking innovation.
Unlocking innovation potential through increasing visibility of research, experts and industry partners
Despite these barriers, the collaboration between industry and academia is possible and can be incredibly lucrative as evidenced by the $USD 3.2bn in revenue generated by Gardasil for Merck in 2018 alone [6]. The first step to unlocking the innovation potential of academic research through collaboration is to identify who to collaborate with. Yet, this is a time consuming and difficult task due to an overwhelming number of academic institutions, research papers, and experts. A lack of insightful directories to find relevant collaborators means searches are often conducted manually across multiple databases. Often, databases do not even exist, making it nearly impossible. Consequently, academic institutions are opaque and potential innovation within them hidden. At Treebute, we aspire to bridge the chasm between academia and industry by making research and experts visible. Our cloud-based platforms Treebute Library and Treebute Talent leverage the power of machine learning to provide a single intelligent directory of research and experts within academic institutions. We aim to increase the efficiency, accuracy and ease of searches for collaborators, to help unlock the innovation potential in academic research. For more information visit https://www.treebute.io/
References:
[1] Office, U. N. H. D. R. Human Development Indices and Indicators 2018 Statistical Update. (2018).
[2] Grant, J. & Buxton, M. J. Economic returns to medical research funding. BMJ Open 8, e022131, doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2018–022131 (2018).
[3] KPMG. Economic Impact of Medical Research in Australia, (2018).
[4] Drolet, M., Benard, E., Perez, N., Brisson, M. & Group, H. P. V. V. I. S. Population-level impact and herd effects following the introduction of human papillomavirus vaccination programmes: updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet 394, 497–509, doi:10.1016/S0140–6736(19)30298–3 (2019).
[5] Guo, F., Cofie, L. E. & Berenson, A. B. Cervical Cancer Incidence in Young U.S. Females After Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Introduction. Am J Prev Med 55, 197–204, doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2018.03.013 (2018).
[6] Merck’s Leadership In HPV Vaccines Market, Forbes (2019).
Written by Dr. Samuel Harleay, as part of his internship with Treebute during Christmas break.
Sam has recently graduated from a PhD program in Neuroimmunology at the University of Queensland, and he’s been a huge contributor to the content in this blog !
