Grounding and Anchoring: Success Factors for Academia-Industry Collaboration

This paper integrates a top-down analysis of the existing literature on academia-industry collaboration (AIC) with a bottom-up qualitative study consisting of 16 anonymised interviews. From a variety of academic and industry sources we identified three dominant discourses that are frequently drawn upon. These often-repeated statements, while partially true, act to obscure considerably complexity and nuance. In an effort to expand existing AIC discourse, we introduce two key concepts: grounding and anchoring. These can take place in an organisational or a personal context. An AIC project is personally grounded, when individuals involved in the project feel that the work is meaningful to them, that it is aligned with their wider values and is making a difference to the world. Analogously, organisational grounding indicates that a project is consistent with the culture and values of the organisation. An AIC project is personally anchored when the people responsible for it feel a strong sense of ownership and agency towards the project. Organisational anchoring indicates that a project is fully supported within the organisation, in particular by the relevant managers and executives. When a project is sufficiently grounded and anchored, success and the personal satisfaction of the people involved in the activity are more likely to follow.