Industry at 2026 UIIN Conference (16 June 2026)

While the potential of working with universities is well understood, the reality is often harder to navigate. Companies face fragmented entry points, unclear ownership, slow processes, and misaligned expectations. At the same time, universities are managing diverse industry demands, internal complexity, and competing incentives. The result is friction that slows down collaboration and limits its value.

This workshop creates a structured space for industry and university actors to work through these challenges together. Rather than staying at the level of general discussion, participants engage in a hands-on design process to identify what gets in the way—and co-create practical ways to make collaboration more seamless, responsive, and effective.

Who this is for

This session is designed for industry and university professionals who actively engage in partnerships, including:

Large company and SME representatives

• R&D and innovation managers
• Talent and HR leads focused on graduate pipelines
• Corporate partnership and external relations managers
• Business unit leaders collaborating with academic partners
• Start-up and scale-up founders working with universities

University professionals

• Technology transfer and knowledge exchange professionals
• Industry liaison and partnership managers
• Faculty members involved in external collaboration
• Leadership shaping engagement strategies

By the end of the session, participants will:

• Develop a clearer understanding of where and why friction occurs in university–industry collaboration
• Gain insight into how collaboration is experienced from both sides, including blind spots and assumptions
• Identify the critical components of a high-functioning collaboration ecosystem
• Co-create practical design principles that improve accessibility, clarity, and responsiveness
• Define roles, interfaces, and processes that enable smoother collaboration journeys
• Leave with actionable ideas to apply within their own organisations

The session is deliberately structured as a design lab, enabling participants to move from problem articulation to solution-building within a collaborative environment.

Why attend

If you are looking to move beyond ad hoc partnerships and towards more structured, effective, and scalable collaboration, this session provides both the space and the tools to do so—together with the people on the other side of the equation.