Characterizing industry collaborators in engineering research: Academic engagement between firms and Chalmers University of Technology, 2009–2018

Advanced education may facilitate more university-industry collaborative research, if some individuals move to industry after graduation. This article examines the underexplored phenomenon of industry collaborators in collaborative research as one form of academic engagement with industry; we focus on industry collaborators’ academic work experience, in terms of PhD education and university affiliations, and its contribution to knowledge networks. We propose that stronger connections to academia indicate competence and experience, thereby facilitating more meaningful partnerships. Through an examination of the Signals and Control Engineering group at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, we analyze co-authorship between academic and industry collaborators, resulting in a typology of various types of industry collaborators. Our results indicate that a majority of collaborations involve co-authors affiliated with firms, with PhD graduates and firm-employed PhD students emerging as main types of collaborators. Particularly notable are collaborations involving ‘dual affiliated researchers’ – individuals employed by both a firm and the university simultaneously – who are associated with the establishment of dense and long-term knowledge networks. These findings add to the literature on academic engagement with industry by underscoring the importance of individuals with dual affiliations in academia and industry, including graduate students, for promoting academic engagement and impact.