Academicians, Industry Experts Discuss R&D And Industry Linkage

Research and development (R&D) play a significant role in innovation and a key factor in developing new competitive advantages. Academic institutes in collaboration with industry can foster the research ecosystem and enhance the growth of the economy.

Academicians and industry experts discuss the linkage and importance of R&D and industry at the BW Education Future of Management Education Conclave 2019. Among the panelists were, Nilesh Gaikwad, Country Manager, EDHEC Business School; Abhay Gupta, Founder & CEO, Luxury Connect & Luxury Connect Business School; Nirakush Dutta, Head- MBA Admissions, BITS Pilani; Sakket Venkateswara Rao, VP-Marketing, OxfordCaps. The discussion was chaired by Mahadeo Jaiswal, Director, IIM Sambalpur.

Abhay Gupta shared that the students of Luxury Connect Business School conduct research that is industry-specific in order to gain inputs from the industry leaders on what challenges they face and the future of the industry. He said, “When we analyse the research, we understand the industry point of view in terms of what to train our students in the future.”

Giving the industry point of view, Sakket Venkateswara Rao said, “Industry finds lack of consumer perspective in the academic research. The academia-industry engagement has to be more consumer-centric and have the unbiased opinion of day to day industry working. When industry and academia partner to work on the disconnect that the industry has with the consumer or the specific need, the industry won’t mind collaborating.”

Furthermore, Nilesh Gaikwad gave insights on industry-academia collaboration globally and said that EDHEC students have compulsory research or thesis project working closely with the professors and industry partners. He said, “Industry comes to academic institutes and offer specific topics for research. The industry guides the students to work on specific case studies in order to create future relevance.”

Nirakush Dutta informed that India ranks in the top 10 list of published research papers worldwide but ranks over 100 in the number of citations. He said, “The report suggests the relevance of our research.”

The IIM Sambalpur Director shared, “In India, when academia tries to conduct industry-based research, and the industry collaborates in terms of data and funding but with a condition of not publishing. And when researchers are not given permission to publish, they don’t work on it and this is the biggest challenge.”