Bridging the Triple Helix: How Universities, Industry and Government Can Collaborate Better
Aligning incentives, widening access and reforming governance are central to building a more equitable knowledge economy
A background note can be accessed here: NITI Aayog Pushes University-Industry-Government Collaboration to Improve Ease of Doing R&D
Dr. Sanchit Arora: Senior Director of Research, Pragmatic Policy Group
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure | SDG 4: Quality Education
Institutions: Ministry of Education | Ministry of Science & Technology | Ministry of Commerce & Industry
University research, industrial product development, and government policy cycles often operate at different rhythms and urgencies. How significant a barrier is this misalignment in making university–industry–government collaborations work effectively?
University research, industrial product development, and government policymaking often move at different speeds, not because they are incompatible but because they operate with different incentives. Universities value publications, industry prizes speed and commercial certainty, and governments balance accountability with political constraints — differences that naturally shape risk tolerance and time horizons. But these spheres are ultimately complementary, and the real task is to make it easier for knowledge and capability to move between them.
Two mechanisms matter most. Secondments give professionals hands-on exposure to another sector, building trust, shared vocabulary and a practical sense of how decisions are made. Strategic collaborations bring academic rigour, industrial pragmatism and policy insight into the same project, allowing each to lean on the strengths of the others.
This convergence is becoming more visible: companies are embedding academics in live projects, universities are encouraging applied research, and governments are opening up to lateral hires. But progress remains uneven. Policymakers can accelerate it by building collaboration metrics into university assessments, requiring academic advisers on major contracts, and funding programmes that reward meaningful, sustained cross-sector partnerships.
As collaborations increasingly cluster around elite universities and large firms, will such initiatives risk deepening inequality, where only a few lie at the intersection of knowledge, capital, and policy while most remain outside it?
This is a valid concern: collaborations do tend to cluster around elite universities and large firms, concentrating knowledge, capital and policy influence within a few hubs while smaller institutions and MSMEs are left at the margins. The challenge is not intent but capacity – many regional universities, colleges and smaller firms lack the staff, infrastructure or administrative bandwidth to participate in complex partnerships, even when they are willing.
The opportunity lies in deliberately widening the collaboration net. College and department heads can play a key role by building outreach strategies that connect their institutions to industry and policymakers beyond traditional elite circles. Digital platforms and virtual research networks can help level the field by lowering entry barriers and widening access, provided they are designed so that opportunities don’t get concentrated in the same few players.
The aim is to ensure these initiatives generate genuine spillovers – wider knowledge sharing, stronger supply chains, and more mobility for talent – so that the benefits extend beyond established clusters. Partnerships will need to engage more deliberately with MSMEs and emerging startups, especially those outside major urban centres that are already demonstrating strong innovation and risk-taking potential.
Universities and industries function under very different incentive structures — academic credit versus commercial returns. What kinds of governance or incentive reforms could enable more sustained, outcome-driven collaboration across these sectors?
Universities can embed industry engagement into promotion criteria, treat high-quality collaborative work on par with publications and make contracting and IP rules simpler and more predictable. Companies, for their part, can draw on academic advisers to strengthen research discipline and project quality – an option many professionals do not realise is available.
A persistent barrier is simple awareness. Many potential partners do not know these collaborations are possible, and even when they do, they often start through personal networks because there is no clear entry point.
Practical steps – such as universities prominently listing faculty open to industry projects and governments explicitly requesting academic rigour in commissioned work – can further normalise collaboration and strengthen the bridge between research and real-world application.
Author:
Views are personal.