Many universities have developed significant capabilities and international recognition in a number of fields clustered around a common theme (e.g. electronics for hostile environments or civil resilience). These competencies are often spread across various departments, although there is a growing trend to bring them together in various organisational structures.
This fragmentation of expertise is a lost marketing opportunity. By bringing together the expertise of several academic groups into a coordinated and thematic knowledge exchange programme (without compromising the independence of the academics), a more compelling offering (as the total is greater than the sum of the parts) is presented to industry, governments, and other external organisations.
This type of programme will:
- Accelerate industrial engagement in the thematic field by developing the brand of the University as a global Centre of Excellence
- Build a community of industrial and governmental clientele that sees the University as a Centre of Excellence in the field
- Improve pathways to impact performance for academics in the Schools associated with the programme
Building on its extensive experience, Qi3 has developed a structured programme of interlinking activities to address this challenge and build thematic industrial awareness / engagement. These activities include targeted market development, broad brokering to engage a wide spectrum of organisations, and narrow brokering to encourage individual research collaborations between the University and industry.
Please view our case studies to see examples of our work.