Næringslivets samhandling med universiteter og høgskoler i og utenfor regionen: Funn fra en undersøkelse av norske bedrifter

Abstract

The chapter examines collaboration with universities from the perspective of firms, drawing on survey data from 1200 Norwegian firms. Around one in five firms collaborate with a university. The firms provide various motives for collaborating, including access to knowledge, access to students and staff, and improving their reputation. The collaborations span a wide variety of different mechanisms, including research, teaching and other activities. Frequently used indicators of university-industry interaction, such as joint research projects and contract research, account for less than half of all collaborations, while informal consultations and training or educational programmes emerge as important areas of collaboration. In two-thirds of the cases, the local university is the most important partner for university-industry interaction, while the national technical university NTNU accounts for more than half of the most important inter-regional connections. In total, 93 percent of firms involved in university-industry interaction have connections to their local universities. However, half of them also interact with universities in other regions of Norway, and 30 percent with foreign universities. Hence, local universities can act as bridges that also enable firms to reach distant research groups.