(136e) From Fortune 500 to Startup:  Perspectives on successful collaborations with Academia

Collaborations with Academic partners – often referred to as “leveraging activities” around the water cooler – are an excellent solution to investigate challenging scientific and engineering problems. This approach allows the Company to expand into new areas of research when internal resources and/or time are limited. This talk will consider two case studies wherein two drastically different companies (by size and resources) collaborated with an academic partner, the Georgia Institute of Technology, creating a Venn diagram of overlapping success stories. The motivation for these engagements was driven by (1) expertise/talent in the space and (2) the capability to synthesize/fabricate/characterize materials at the University.

In case one, the Company – an oil and gas major – initiated a direct-funded project focused on novel membrane development for challenging hydrocarbon separations. This project quickly grew into a multi-year endeavor and included engagement across multiple disciplines. As the University produced new membrane materials, the Company would bring them in-house for rigorous performance evaluation using real feedstocks and conditions. Filling the pipeline from materials discovery to “real world” characterization proved quite successful.

As for case two, we consider the other end of the scale wherein the Company – a direct air capture startup – was smaller than the Academic research group at the time of engagement. Considering the Company resources (financial & physical) paired with the desire to expedite R&D, a different approach was required to initiate a meaningful collaboration. After the successful receipt of a government grant to fund the program, the Company and Academic team were able unlock the depth of capability in both materials/processes and characterization to accelerate scientific progress. The collaboration proved to be a springboard for the Company as it developed from ground up its in-house R&D capabilities and rapidly advanced the technology towards commercialization.

In this session, we will discuss these two industry-academia collaboration modalities, including lessons learned, key advantages, and frameworks for establishing successful collaborations. The speakers will split the allotted time to provide their individual perspectives having been the respective principle investigators for the projects in these two case studies. This will also provide a “mini-panel” format for Q&A after the presentation to serve various members of the audience.