Research Partnerships in a College Setting

In a college setting, research partnerships can take many forms. Often, research activities do not occur in isolation, but may, in fact, cycle through different types of engagement with the same partner and/or at different stages of a research project.

Partner-Based Research

• Projects are jointly carried out by a college and an external partner.
• The goal is for an industry partner to solve an identified challenge through access to the talent and research infrastructure at the college.
• Typically, grant monies are leveraged to help fund the collaborative research project, with the external partner providing a matching contribution (comprised of cash and/or in-kind support).
• This often results in intellectual property that the business commercializes.

Capstone-in-Class

• These are also known as a culminating project or experience.
• They often involve external partners as part of the experiential learning process.
• Typically, projects such as student research are delivered without grant funding.
• The activity is considered part of the classroom/program-related work.

Internships

• Internships enable industry to solve a challenge by adding a talented student to the team for a finite period of time.

Contract

• Contract research partnerships require the industry partner to pay cash for the R&D rather than leveraging grant funds.