July 10 2020
Welcome to the University Industry Initiative Corner – or UII Corner, for short!
Here, we will highlight planning and rollout of this Initiative, plus begin to showcase outstanding examples of collaborative efforts between companies and institutions of higher learning.
Our basic UII goal is to identify and pursue these partnerships benefiting both the educational side as well as the company side. Such collaborations can be as creative as our creative spirits allow. Certainly, they can include student career opportunities, support for faculty research, enhanced networking, workforce education and training. But they might also include industry tracking studies, thought leader symposia, corporate-sponsored PhD programs, and more.
How will this all play out? BSMA looks to you for guidance in what makes the most sense. But our current thinking is that we want to (a) highlight and support any industry-academic engagements currently underway, and (b) identify one or two new initiatives of interest to our members.
I have begun with Zoom calls to our university members. These are designed to discover more about any work already underway. We plan to highlight these with posts on the BSMA website and on our social media platforms.
These calls should also help us better understand how existing academic-industry goals and activities could potentially be expanded with support from this BSMA UII.
Once I work through the interviews, I will issue a brief summary of preliminary information gathered. This summary will be shared with all our members.
After showcasing current collaborations, we want to turn to new efforts. I’ll host a Zoom call with all our industry and university leaders to brainstorm one or two specific initiatives that we can launch under the UII banner. Perhaps this will support the new BSMA job board, our robust professional education program, or something else.
Watch this space! Your recommendations are always welcome.