How universities can find SMEs that are ready to collaborate
SME engagement strategies often begin with the assumption that more outreach will produce more collaboration. In practice, a longer list of firms rarely creates stronger partnerships on its own.
Our research makes this point clear; not all SMEs can, want to, or should collaborate with universities. The strategic task is therefore not to reach more SMEs, but to identify those where collaboration has a realistic basis: innovation activity, a clear need for external knowledge, and enough capacity to act.
Universities need a sharper way to identify which SMEs are most likely to benefit from collaboration and act on it. The SME landscape is broad and uneven. Many firms may be interested in universities in principle, but interest only becomes useful when there is capacity, timing, problem-fit, and internal ownership.
Universities also have limited engagement capacity. Time spent pursuing poorly matched leads reduces the time available for relationships where collaboration could create value. A stronger SME approach starts with selection: identifying firms with a real need, a plausible reason for university involvement, and enough readiness to engage.
A useful lead is more than a name on a list
SMEs dominate most business landscapes, but many are not ready for university collaboration. Some need commercial services rather than academic expertise. Others lack the capacity to absorb external knowledge, manage a project, or act on advice.
A useful lead should point to a firm with a real problem or opportunity, enough internal capacity to engage, and a clear reason for university involvement. This can include micro and small firms, especially when they are innovation-driven and close to applied problems. A micro firm with a clear technical challenge and an engaged founder may be more promising than a larger SME with vague interest and no internal owner.
Look for signs of innovation readiness
The SMEs most likely to collaborate successfully are often already showing signs that external knowledge matters to their business. Our analysis shows that SMEs are more likely to engage with universities when they already have some connection to innovation activity, research environments, or knowledge-intensive networks. This does not always mean a formal R&D department. In many SMEs, innovation capacity is informal and concentrated in one or two people: a founder, technical lead, senior manager, or operational problem-owner who understands the challenge and has enough authority to act.
Universities should therefore look for practical signals that the firm is already trying to develop, test, improve, or scale something where external expertise could add value. These signals may include:
- In-house R&D or technical development activity;
- Previous collaboration with other companies on R&D or innovation;
- Founders or senior managers with academic, scientific, or technical backgrounds;
- Prior exposure to research environments;
- Participation in innovation chains where new knowledge, testing, or specialist expertise is important.
These indicators matter because interest alone rarely carries a collaboration. The firm also needs some absorptive capacity: the ability to recognise the value of external knowledge, bring it into the business, and apply it to a product, process, or strategic problem. For universities, this makes lead identification more precise: the question is not whether the firm expresses interest, but whether it has the people, processes, or experience needed to turn external expertise into action.
Start from relationships already close to the university
Some of the strongest SME leads are already close to the university: existing collaborators, alumni, placement providers, event participants, and firms that have made previous enquiries. Even light-touch familiarity can lower the threshold for engagement.
One useful consideration is previous collaboration experience. Firms that have already worked with universities are more likely to understand what collaboration involves, where it can create value, and how to navigate the process. For universities, these firms should not be treated as “past contacts”, but as potential next-step partners.
Universities should therefore treat previous interactions as partner intelligence. Useful questions include: who has engaged before, what took place, whether it created value, whether there was a possible next step, and who in the university knows the company.
When previous SME interactions are tracked well, they become more than administrative history. They help engagement teams identify firms that may be ready for another conversation, a different form of support, or a more substantial collaboration.
Use the ecosystem to identify credible leads
SMEs rarely make collaboration decisions in isolation. Customers, supply chains, peer firms, investors, clusters, chambers of commerce, innovation agencies, and local intermediaries all shape where they look for support. This connects to a wider insight from our work on business collaborators: collaboration often depends on individuals inside companies who already see the value of engaging with universities. Just under half of collaborating firms initiate academic collaborations themselves, which reinforces the importance of looking for SMEs with internal pull, not only those responding to university outreach.
These actors can help universities identify firms that are active, credible, and closer to being ready for collaboration. They can also make introductions feel more trusted than cold outreach.
Universities can reduce cold outreach by working through:
- Industry clusters and sector networks;
- Chambers of commerce and business associations;
- Innovation agencies and regional development bodies;
- Incubators, accelerators, and science parks;
- Alumni communities;
- Supply-chain partners and larger anchor firms;
- Satisfied SME collaborators willing to make introductions.
This is especially valuable in regional ecosystems, where local intermediaries often know which firms are growing, investing, experimenting, or facing technical challenges. Their insight helps universities focus on firms with momentum, credibility, and a plausible reason to collaborate.
Five questions before pursuing an SME lead
Universities do not need a complex scoring system to become more selective. They need a simple way to avoid treating every lead in the same way.
A practical prioritisation lens could ask five questions:
- Is there a clear applied problem or opportunity?
The more specific the need, the easier it is to identify the right university route. - Is the firm innovation-active?
Look for product development, process improvement, technical experimentation, R&D activity, or participation in innovation networks. - Does the SME have capacity to act?
Someone in the firm needs time, authority, and enough technical or managerial understanding to engage with the university. - Is there a trusted route into the company?
Alumni links, previous engagement, peer referral, or intermediary introduction can all reduce the friction of first contact. - Can the university offer something relevant within the firm’s timeline?
A good lead is only useful if the university can respond in a way that matches the SME’s urgency and constraints.
This lens helps engagement teams decide where to focus their effort. It also helps determine the right starting point. Some firms may be ready for collaborative R&D. Others may need a diagnostic conversation, technical advisory session, student project, or referral to an ecosystem partner.
The value of the lens is that it helps universities focus their effort and avoid treating every SME enquiry in the same way.
Use the regional role to spot better-fit firms
Universities provide expertise, but their regional value often goes further. They can connect firms to talent, facilities, funding routes, intermediaries, and peer networks. They can also help companies translate broad business challenges into questions that can be addressed through expertise, testing, student talent, or applied research.
This regional role matters because university–business collaboration is often built close to home. Our research shows that most European businesses that collaborate do so with universities in their region, 71.7%, or country, 59.7%. For universities, this means that better SME leads are often not found through broad outreach, but through the networks already around them: local clusters, chambers, alumni communities, science parks, innovation agencies, and regional development bodies.
Readiness is only part of the judgement. Universities also need to ask where they can add value that others in the ecosystem cannot. Sometimes that value will come through direct collaboration. Sometimes it will come through convening, referral, problem diagnosis, or helping a firm understand what kind of expertise it needs.
For SMEs, that guidance can be as important as the formal project itself. It helps them avoid wasted effort and gives them a clearer sense of when university collaboration is the right route.
A more realistic SME strategy
A more realistic SME strategy starts with better judgement about fit. Universities should focus on firms with a real need, signs of innovation activity, enough capacity to engage, and a credible route into collaboration. Trusted relationships and ecosystem partners can then help widen reach without treating the SME sector as one broad audience.
This makes engagement capacity easier to use well. It also gives SMEs a clearer route to the right kind of support, whether that is a research project, student collaboration, advisory conversation, diagnostic session, or referral elsewhere in the ecosystem.
Ready for more?
Successful SME engagement is not about reaching the largest number of firms. It is about identifying organisations with the right mix of motivation, capacity, and opportunity to turn collaboration into meaningful outcomes. Understanding who is ready to engage and how relationships develop over time can help universities focus their efforts where they can create the greatest value.
- Designing university–SME collaboration that actually works explores why many SME engagement initiatives struggle to scale and what universities can do differently. Drawing on evidence from thousands of businesses across Europe, it outlines how universities can create lower-friction entry points, build trust through repeat interaction, and design collaboration pathways that better reflect the realities of smaller firms.
- Who really makes university–business collaboration happen? Insights into academic and business collaborators examines the people behind successful collaborations, highlighting the individual motivations, experiences, and behaviours that often determine whether engagement takes place. It offers valuable insight into why some firms proactively seek university partnerships while others do not.
Luca Barbera (author) is a Project Officer at UIIN. His work encompasses a broad spectrum of research topics, including sustainability, deep tech, engagement practices for universities and academics, with a particular emphasis on the valorisation of results
