TY - JOUR
T1 - Barriers to university-industry collaboration in an academic university department in London, United Kingdom
AU - Mirza, Hassan
AU - Al Sinawi, Hamed
AU - Al-Balushi, Naser
AU - Al-Alawi, Mohammed
AU - Panchatcharam, Sathiya Murthi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.
PY - 2020/12/10
Y1 - 2020/12/10
N2 - Purpose: University-industry collaboration yields numerous advantages resulting in potential benefits in funding research and innovation. Despite the numerous benefits, there are various perceived disadvantages of such collaboration especially in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry in prominent academic institutes in London, UK. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes of the academics and clinicians in an academic university department towards industry collaboration. Design/methodology/approach: Two methods were applied, quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative method used an online questionnaire of four-point Likert-Scale, the link of which was emailed to 80 members of the department with a response rate of 32%. The qualitative method included a one-to-one interview with eight researchers from the department to garner in-depth information on the attitude of researchers in child and adolescent psychiatry towards industry collaboration. Findings: The online questionnaire was completed by 26 researchers, the vast majority perceived industry as biased to favour their product and as having a bad or mixed reputation. One-on-one interviews with eight prominent researchers allowed us to share their perception and attitude towards industry collaboration, although the researchers believe that availability of funding was the major advantage of working in collaboration with industry, many did not know how to access such grants and some raised concerns about industry’s record of presenting partial results. Research limitations/implications: Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further. Practical implications: This paper will shed light on how prominent researchers perceive collaboration with industry. Originality/value: Although researchers are very reluctant to collaborate with industry because of its public opinion and sometimes unethical and lack of integrity among the industry, with rigorous ethical guidelines and policies, the pharmaceutical industry can be a potential and significant source of funding of high-quality research and innovation.
AB - Purpose: University-industry collaboration yields numerous advantages resulting in potential benefits in funding research and innovation. Despite the numerous benefits, there are various perceived disadvantages of such collaboration especially in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry in prominent academic institutes in London, UK. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes of the academics and clinicians in an academic university department towards industry collaboration. Design/methodology/approach: Two methods were applied, quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative method used an online questionnaire of four-point Likert-Scale, the link of which was emailed to 80 members of the department with a response rate of 32%. The qualitative method included a one-to-one interview with eight researchers from the department to garner in-depth information on the attitude of researchers in child and adolescent psychiatry towards industry collaboration. Findings: The online questionnaire was completed by 26 researchers, the vast majority perceived industry as biased to favour their product and as having a bad or mixed reputation. One-on-one interviews with eight prominent researchers allowed us to share their perception and attitude towards industry collaboration, although the researchers believe that availability of funding was the major advantage of working in collaboration with industry, many did not know how to access such grants and some raised concerns about industry’s record of presenting partial results. Research limitations/implications: Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further. Practical implications: This paper will shed light on how prominent researchers perceive collaboration with industry. Originality/value: Although researchers are very reluctant to collaborate with industry because of its public opinion and sometimes unethical and lack of integrity among the industry, with rigorous ethical guidelines and policies, the pharmaceutical industry can be a potential and significant source of funding of high-quality research and innovation.
KW - Barriers
KW - Collaboration
KW - Industry
KW - University
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85085759715&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85085759715&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1108/IJPHM-11-2016-0062
DO - 10.1108/IJPHM-11-2016-0062
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85085759715
SN - 1750-6123
VL - 14
SP - 445
EP - 460
JO - International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing
JF - International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing
IS - 3
ER -