The value of co-production

Co-production gives researchers and business actors an insight into and an understanding of each other’s needs.

The research can be enriched by questions and problems that have arisen in the business actors’ operations, and benefit from the experiences of the business actors’ staff. The researchers also often gain access to data, equipment, test environments, etc. that are not available at the university. The business actors, for their part, can benefit from research results that are relevant to the development of their business and develop the competence of their employees based on current research.

Co-production means that the projects we fund can be rooted both in state-of-the-art research in academia and state-of-the-art development in the business sector. In the longer term, co-production builds trust and networks between academia and business actors, facilitating new and more in-depth collaborations.

The value of co-production for the business sector
  • Financial
    Sharing development costs
  • Innovation
    New ideas, trends and business intelligence
  • Employee development
    New roles, new duties and new networks
  • Access to skills
    Recruitment and promoting the growth of centres of excellence
  • Developing new solutions
    Verification, reducing development time, sharing technical risk
  • Developing partnerships
    Developing forms of co-production with external actors
  • Technological leadership
    Promoting standardisation, setting the agenda, inspiring others

A co-produced educational programme guarantees the business relevance of the educational offer of the universities. It also fosters good provision of competence in the business sector, which is crucial to the development of the business actors and their long-term competitiveness. Co-production also strengthens the capacity of universities to run educational activities tailored to the competence development of working professionals.

Advantages of co-production for academia
  • Knowledge development
    Access to relevant, new and upcoming knowledge
  • Data and material
    Access to equipment and data in the business sector
  • Employee development
    Deeper insights and greater understanding
  • Developing partnerships
    Contact with people with the capacity to translate knowledge and innovation, which also creates new opportunities