A joint push for academic research
Europe's universities represent a bridge between higher education and research. They are the key to strengthening the European Research Area (ERA) and knowledge economy, with the goal of improving EU growth and competitiveness. The EU-funded project 'European laboratory for modelling the technical research university of tomorrow' (ULAB)(opens in new window) represented a think tank of five leading universities working on upgrading university research and innovation management. The team of technical and research-intensive universities from Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom investigated and documented best practices and innovative procedures for research management, entrepreneurship and outreach. They published a white paper on 'How to build the Technical Research University of tomorrow', offering recommendations on tackling challenges such as improving the impact of research results and reaching out to citizens. Key good practices include the creation of flexible structures to address multidisciplinary and strong specialisation, the sharing of knowledge and costs with other entities, and progressive de-localisation of activities. The latter involves opening university activities to students located in other countries and creating ad hoc offers for post-graduate courses adapted to the needs of specific clients. Best practice trends also include stronger exploitation of university research results, for example through more patents, licenses, royalties and spin-off creation. Beyond sharing and promoting good practices in the field, the project worked on creating and strengthening focused networks among technical and/or research-intensive universities. It highlighted the advantages of cooperating within a network through pilot activities involving different partner universities. Project achievements also included improved research management processes through an expanded Joint Action Plan among ULAB universities, improving research management in European technical research universities. These positive outcomes and results will be communicated to numerous technical research universities across Europe, strengthening the interaction of higher education institutions with business and society. The emerging new university concept, built on dynamic cooperation of networking institutions, will certainly have positive effects on competitiveness and the economy.