Over the last year, and as part of our SME Instrument Phase I project, we have performed an in-depth study to better understand the problems experienced by companies, scientists and universities.
Companies and organisations often rely on external scientific expertise to develop their products or consultancy to solve technical problems. A recurring problem is that businesses have trouble finding quality and reliable scientists that are willing and able to help them. At the same time, scientists find it difficult to find commercial parties that work on interesting topics that are suitable for consultancy or long-term collaborations.
More than 700 businesses (small and large), 1100+ scientists, and 150+ representatives from universities, research- and technology transfer organisations have completed the questionnaires on our website. A big THANK YOU to all of you who took the time to answer our questions and to provide us with their valuable insights.
Fig. 1 shows the geographical distribution of participants within Europe. Although the majority of participants had previously taken part in business-science projects, only a small fraction had used online platforms to do this. Almost two-thirds of the participating scientists and half of company representatives thinks it is likely or extremely likely that an online platform could be helpful to exchange scientific services and goods. Although there is some variation per country, the response was overwhelmingly positive throughout Europe (Fig. 2).
We have collected a wealth of detailed data that we plan to discuss in a future series of blog posts. Here, we present some key findings that have encouraged us to continue developing QuestPair:
– It is often hard for companies to interact with suitable experts that are both available and skilled.
– Scientists often experience difficulties in finding engaging problems that are interesting from a scientific point of view. This is often related to the fact that it is time-consuming to identify the right connection within a company to discuss and start projects & collaborations.
– Universities are typically involved in a variety of local collaborations in their region, but commercial teams and scientists often find it more difficult to engage with international opportunities that require entirely new connections.
We are excited to launch a first beta-version of QuestPair soon. Please register, and keep giving us feedback! We will not forget your support.
* choices on the Likert scale: {Extremely unlikely, Unlikely, Neutral, Likely, Very likely}
