Lambert Review

• the best form of knowledge transfer comes when a talented researcher moves out of the university and into business, or vice versa.
• the most exciting collaborations arise as a result of like-minded people getting together – sometimes by chance – to address a problem.
• encouraging academics and business people to spend more time together should be a high priority for knowledge transfer professionals.
• the innovation process is non-linear, so knowledge transfer is not simply a question of channeling clever ideas from researchers down a production line into commercialisation. "Great ideas emerge out of all kinds of feedback loops, activities and sheer chance. This is another reason why it is so critical to build dynamic networks between academic researchers and their business counterparts."
• diversity is good, both in mission and in funding. "The type of business collaboration that would make sense for one kind of university might be either impossible or irrelevant for another."
• proximity matters when it comes to business collaboration.
• "business-university collaborations need careful and consistent management by both sides, and a number of joint programmes have failed for lack of such attention".
• an emphasis on knowledge transfer requires institutions to put in place new mechanisms for establishing institutional priorities.
• universities are more complex to manage than businesses, with a variety of different stakeholders – academics, students, and funders.
• that the large number of pots of ring-fenced financing is 'the source of endless unnecessary frustration'.