"Collaboration between academia and industry is increasingly a critical component of efficient national innovation systems. It is useful to examine the experience of developed countries to better understand the different types of university-industry collaboration, motivations to form these agreements and barriers to cooperation, as well as the role of public policy in fostering such linkages. Developing countries face even greater barriers to such alliances, calling for a differentiated approach to promoting university-industry collaboration".
(José Guimón, World Bank, 2013)
Most universities worldwide have by now some type of interaction with local, national or multinational industry. The type of interaction and its degree of intensity depends on many external and internal factors for instance the existence of:
- research capacity within the university,
- an industrial base involved in ‘Research and Development' (R & D) activities,
- the existence of governmental policies, initiatives structures or programs to stimulate collaborative R & D,
- a tradition of interaction between university and industry,
- an entrepreneurial culture within the higher education sector, and
- an academic reward system and incentives.
The University Business Linkage Cell acts as a premotor and coordinator of the UBL activities.
This goal is achieved by designing and conducting centrally operated as well as faculty-level operated multitude of activities that comes under the focal areas described above.
- UBL Cell shall function in all universities and work in close collaboration with the Faculties and the Academic Developments as the task of "developing university business linkages" is a joint responsibility where the academic community working closely with the private the state-owned businesses as well as their representative organizations (chamber, business association and others)
- UBL Cell shall conduct initiatives or facilitate the conduct of projects, which fall into all, or initially at least three of the categories identified as focal areas described above.
- UBL Cell shall conduct/promote the conduct of seminars, conferences, workshops, exhibitions, etc. aimed at creating awareness for the development of University Business Linkages.