Becky Nesbit was at the Plant Sci conference in April and reviews a talk encouraging academics to link with business.
Science and industry are unavoidably linked, so it is important for academics to have business knowledge and often beneficial to have a working relationship with commercial companies.
At the recent PlantSci conference, Dr Dan Godfrey from the BBSRC Bioscience and Innovation Unit was a speaker at the ‘Working with Business’ evening workshop.
His advice to the plant science community is to develop links with business. “Academic researchers can gain a huge amount from working with business, for example through sharing expertise and facilities and by establishing a dialogue on important research challenges. I would encourage all plant scientists to consider partnering with business. It can be a valuable source of funding and they may discover their research has commercial potential, which they hadn’t yet considered.”
The BBSRC operates a range of schemes designed to support academic partnerships with industry. (more…)