(277a) Ensuring Success of Broad Industrial/Academic Collaboration

This presentation will address general aspects of precompetitive collaboration and then focus on a specific example, the SSPC. 

The Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC), is a Global Hub of Pharmaceutical Process Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing, funded by the SFI and industry, is a unique collaboration between 17 companies, 8 academic institutions and 12 international academic collaborators.  There are three strands to the research program, covering chemical synthesis, crystallization and formulation.  Following a successful first phase, the second phase of this program commenced recently with €40M in funding.

Collaboration between companies in the same or different industries has evolved over the past forty years. Using the current SSPC collaboration in the pharmaceutical sector as a case study together with the existing literature, the critical success factors and barriers associated with current collaborations are assessed. Areas such as trust, culture, knowledge sharing, proximity, control, metrics, and uncertainty are all seen to play a role in the success of collaborations. Communication and people are found to be the most significant overarching themes for success. 

The presentation will indicate how to get involved in this current collaboration and also provide insight into broader funding opportunities, especially those funded centrally by the European Commission.