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organisation a funding platform to conduct their re-
search as well as a real world dataset to apply their
skills to. Ben Schneiderman explains this “Choosing
actionable problems triggers great research. Work-
ing on real world problems with real data can lead to
real solutions and enable theory validation in living
laboratories.” (Shneiderman, 2016).
The business is provided with an opportunity to
develop visual data analysis tools without the cre-
ative restraint that corporate operations typically im-
pose. More risks can be taken in the research and
so the potential for unique and valuable output is in-
creased. The business will have access to the spe-
cialised knowledge that the university holds which
can be utilised in their own development processes.
Additionally the publishable research the university
creates should contain valuable insights into the busi-
nesses datasets.
Because the process is still seen as a risk, third
party funding is usually a requirement, especially for
SMEs who may not be able to fund external research
entirely by themselves. From the informal interviews
conducted with small business owners and staff mem-
bers, we established that governmental financial sup-
port is a necessity for the development of small busi-
nesses. The future of the UK is uncertain, but we sin-
cerely hope that this vital funding remains available to
small businesses and universities in the United King-
dom as it leaves the European Union.
Recommendations. Below we make a series of rec-
ommendations for entities planning to engage in aca-
demic - industry collaboration;
1. Discuss what contributions each party might bring
to the collaboration.
2. Discuss what personal requirements each party
has for the project. i.e. published papers or
saleable software.
3. Discuss what each party wishes to gain from their
collaboration partner. i.e. knowledge transfer, ac-
cess to data.
4. Firmly establish expected outputs for the collabo-
ration project as well as the deliverables from each
party, placing emphasis on the deliverable from
academia to industry.
Whilst simple, this process helps prevent either
organisation entering the collaboration with any mis-
conceptions as to the requirements of the project. A
common theme among the interviews was a propen-
sity to change requirements or modify deliverables of
the other party over the lifetime the project. This sys-
tem ensures that expectations are managed correctly.
In this paper we have attested the potential for col-
laboration between academia and industry. Although
the two organisations might not align perfectly all
the time, we believe that there is much potential for
valuable research and business development. We are
grateful for the opportunity to work alongside our in-
dustry partner QPC Ltd. and for their contributions
towards our continuing research.
These relationships are valuable because we be-
lieve it is important to implement the knowledge we
develop in the real world. Without it our visualisa-
tion research has less meaning, living only as words
on an unread document in some digital library. We
also benefit from experiencing how industry operates
in the real world, learning about their differing re-
quirements and processes - which helps us align our
creative development to maximise utility in the real
world scenarios. The future of this collaborative re-
lationship is uncertain within the UK. As EU fund-
ing dries up, both industry and academia could suffer
from having this tie cut - especially the small, devel-
oping businesses who might one day become major
contributors to the UK economy.
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