A simple software prototype to enhance academic and industry research collaboration

Abstract

This paper introduces a software prototype designed to enhance local collaboration between researchers from across academic disciplines and institutions as well as industry partners. Academic departments can create barriers for new researchers identifying others working in their field. Industry practitioners also face challenges identifying potential partners in academia. All this is often compounded by lengthy publication cycles that can impede applied research outcomes. The prototype we propose (shell) in this paper is a database driven platform enabling researchers and practitioners to search through abstracts of works-in-progress, upload their own research, and contact or recommend others who share similar research interests.