Countries with higher R&D investment experience GDP growth, businesses gain a strategic edge by partnering with academia, universities access real-world applications, and employees reap clear spillover benefits;
Some of the industry leading companies: Amazon, NVIDIA, Google, IBM, Shell, Siemens – demonstrate robust R&D effort;
Leading models of academia-industry collaboration in MENA include NYU Abu Dhabi, Sorbonne and Khalifa University, the American University of Sharjah, and KAUST.
Competing agendas hinder cross-sector communication, further affecting academic-industry partnerships (AIP). Companies, endeavoring to establish R&D sites abroad, encounter unwillingness to cooperate – difficulties in quality control, research approach and requirements clarification eventually force them to opt out of foreign teams. Now, when the competition is fiercer than ever, financial and human capital constraints, and IP rights issues become their biggest woes. The greatest challenge though is actors questioning efficiency of academia-industry collaboration.
Roles & benefits of AIP stakeholders – driving R&D and economic growth
Moreover, a fundamental study, covering data from 1950 to 2010 for about 15 000 universities in 1500 regions across 78 economies, revealed a positive correlation between the number of universities and a country’s future GDP per capita (10% increase – 0,4% growth).
2. Academic partnerships enable businesses to make breakthroughs and enhance their market competitiveness. These are some cases with the major industry players:
Furthermore, academia fosters entrepreneurship: 100 universities, with UC Berkeley, Stanford and Harvard at the helm, accounted for nearly 43 600 startup founders in 2024.
3. Through partnerships with leading companies, educational institutions gain access to advanced technologies and industry insights, enabling them to optimize research infrastructure (often with industry sponsorship), modify research agendas, and adjust programs to sector-specific demands, thereby amplifying their social impact.
4. With 78 million new job opportunities projected to emerge by 2030, academia plays a pivotal role in addressing labour marketgaps due to the urgent upskilling needs.
University-corporate partnerships in MENA: leading examples in R&D and innovation
KSA- and UAE-based institutions are the key drivers of AIP in the MENA region:
KAUST renewed its R&D collaboration with Ericsson to propel 5G and 6G in Saudi Arabia, and entered into an MoU with Saudi Aramco to support research on liquids-to-chemicals conversion, future refineries, and low-carbon aviation fuels;
Khalifa University, UAE, maintains over 50 active relationships, including those with ADNOC, Boeing, BP, Emirates Global Aluminum, etc., covering aerospace, biomedical engineering, healthcare, national security, telecommunications, IT, and nuclear energy;
Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) is a hub for academia-industry partnerships, hosting over 200 tech companies.
Bahrain’s Higher Education Council (HEC) promotes university-corporate linkages through the Bahrain Economic Vision 2030 (the University of Bahrain and AWS).
There is considerable room for improvement though. Universities lack industry expertise, while businesses’ choke point is a broader perspective: unique knowledge, unpublished research. To bridge the gaps, governments should continue encouraging scientific research and focus more on mitigating skill deficiencies and maximizing effectiveness of R&D incentives. If joint ventures and licensing agreements are the first priority, tailored funding mechanisms and proactive IP management come to the fore.