EATRIS-Plus Workshop: Theory and Practice of Industry and Academy Collaboration

On 27-28 September 2021, the H2020 project EATRIS-Plus hosted an international two-day workshop "Theory and Practice of Industry-Academia Collaboration", co-organized by UL FFA, Biocat (Barcelona, Spain) and EATRIS (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). The workshop brought together 40 academics, postdoctoral researchers, knowledge transfer office staff and representatives of biotechnology companies.

The workshop was held virtually and was highly interactive. During the workshop, participants heard short presentations from representatives of innovation consortia and biotechnology companies, and shared their experiences. They discussed the problems encountered in the collaboration between industry and academia and looked for solutions to overcome these challenges. They learned about the legal basis in a public-private partnership and had the opportunity to present their project in pitch talks.

The lecturers and facilitators of the workshop were representatives of internationally renowned organizations in the field of public-private collaboration (innovation hubs and university incubators, infrastructure consortia, biotech companies):

• Dr. Martin De Kort (EATRIS, the Netherlands)
• Sven Parkel (ScanBalt, Estonia)
• Dr Darja Ferčej-Temeljotov (Lek, Novartis, Slovenia)
• Jakob Gajšek (LUI, Slovenia)
• Tamara Carapina (Legal Adviser for EATRIS, the Netherlands)
• Nigel Wagstaff (EATRIS, The Netherlands)
• Urška Rauter Gaber (Healthday.si, Slovenia)
• Gregor Cuzak (Healthday.si, Slovenia)
• Montserrat Daban Marin (Biocat, Spain)

The workshop on academia and industry collaboration was the first in a series of training sessions on this topic within the EATRIS-Plus project. Next year we hope the situation allows a face-to-face organization, which would enable the forging of new and stronger bonds between the participants. For more information about the EATRIS-Plus project and other activities of the EATRIS Slovenia, please visit the EATRIS Slovenia website.