The Responsible Partnering publication - published jointly by EUA, the European Industrial Research Management Association (EIRMA), the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO), and the Public Research Organisations Transfer Offices Network (ProTon Europe) - reveals that considerable progress in research collaboration has been made in recent years. The report describes the findings of the Special Conference on Responsible Partnering between Research and Business held at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, in December 2007. The Conference took stock of the effectiveness of R&D collaboration supporting the transfer and exchange of knowledge and technology between research and industry. Its aims were to assess trends since the launch of the Responsible Partnering initiative in early 2004, to understand how the Responsible Partnering recommendations are working in practice, to map out where further improvements are required,  and to assess how these improvements might be achieved.

Close and effective forms of collaboration serve to enhance research and knowledge exchange and support productive innovation, and there is a strong desire to avoid approaches that polarise the interests of universities against companies. The business community recognises the major contributions that universities make to modern societies and economies and wishes to see the following contributions grow:

• sustaining research excellence at the top level and state-of-the-art;
• training successive generations of scientists and engineers;
• supporting the development of the local community, including its SMEs;
• supporting people’s capacity to create and be creative; and
• acting as long-term guardians of knowledge on behalf of society.

The report also includes a series of recommendations for different research actors, public authorities and partner associations.

EUA