Measuring Impact Along the Partnership Continuum
Feb. 18, 2025—Since the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 gave U.S. universities ownership of federally-funded research, commercialization has become a key focus in the research landscape. Patents, licenses, and fees collected are straightforward ways to quantify economic impact from the university research enterprise. But a white paper recently published by the UCI Policy Evidence Unit at UIDP member Cambridge University builds a conceptual model for examining and capturing the impact of university resources shared through partnerships, offering the potential to dramatically shift the conversation with a more wholistic view.
Knowledge exchange as a multiplier
The paper, by Leonard Kelleher and Tomas Coates Ulrichsen, centers on the economic return arising from translation of research learnings and sharing them with a variety of partners—what the UK innovation community calls knowledge exchange (KE)—for the benefit of society. Universities are often perceived as economic anchors in their communities and are increasingly expected to demonstrate impact by local, regional, and national governments. By examining the way universities share knowledge with disparate partners, a model emerges for quantifying the many ways universities make an economic impact.
Traditionally, universities measure economic growth through their innovation and commercialization activities and, more recently, contributions to ensure a well-prepared workforce. Universities support companies and entrepreneurs by providing facilities and equipment that boost innovation or services that help move a product from idea to prototype. Importantly, they also offer a space to foster new ideas. Faculty expertise, as well as linkages to other experts, are also valuable assets.
But the transformative role they play is also important and, the writers contend, may be quantifiable. As government programs focus more on regional innovation, universities are often the developmental lead (or a significant partner) in regional innovation and cross-sector entrepreneurial collaborations. In the United States, universities play an important role in most of the EDA Tech Hubs, and the majority of NSF Regional Innovation Engines Phase II awards are university-led. They are critical for offering innovation infrastructure, leading workforce development efforts, and often playing a role in attracting new companies and talent to a region.
Intentionality in leveraging assets
An important element of the model is recognition of the system-level transformation universities can unleash by building regional assets and strengthening their capacity to innovate. Every ecosystem has unique assets—physical, financial, human, social-institutional, natural, and knowledge-based. But an innovation and growth mission directs universities to build on regional assets and increase their capacities and capabilities, often by enabling partners to leverage resources across the region, thereby boosting entrepreneurship, product and service development and market readiness, and assimilating new knowledge from others.
Creating an environment for partners to innovate and enhance their competitiveness adds another layer to the impact universities can quantify—from new products and services to new business creation and improved productivity. The model detailed in the Cambridge white paper is promising in its thoughtful approach and comprehensiveness. But defining (and then testing) the metrics for quantifying the value of the system-level and organizational-level effects remains a future task. For more information on measuring partnership impact, UIDP members can access the Collaboration Metrics publication.
Why it matters
While university-based commercialization and startup activity is laudable, intentionally creating an environment where collaboration and partnership can build regional capacity has a multiplier effect, improving innovation capacity and capabilities for the entire region. For more information on regional economic and innovation efforts, see the 3-Minute Read post on partnerships for economic development.
We want to hear from you. What do you think about building regional economic capacity through partnerships? Let us know on LinkedIn.