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O-021Motivation, obstacles and strategies to the industry-university interaction inthe British pharmaceutical system of innovation.IntroductionJulia Paranhos, Federal University Of Rio De Janeiro, BrazilThe pharmaceutical sector is one of the most important ones in the UK. It is the largest investor in healthcare-related researchand also an important research and development (R&D) performer (HCHC, 2005; UK pharmaceutical directory, 2009). Therelevance of R&D activities in this sector leads to strong interactions between industry and university, which is very welldeveloped in his country.The study about the UK pharmaceutical sector aims to identify the motivations, strategies and obstacles to the industryuniversityinteraction. It will help to understand and learn about the positive strategies undertaken by companies, universitiesand government that led the sector to a virtuous development.MethodologyThe study was preceded by a literature review and secondary data analysis that aimed to contextualise the study showing theUK industry-university interaction numbers and characteristics. The field work consisted of 12 interviews with the UKpharmaceutical system of innovation actors, e.g. companies, universities, charities and government institutions. The interviewswere based on open questionnaires; most of them were by phone and recorded. Although the number of interviewees was notvery large, all of them are representatives from very important actors of the system. The main topics discussed in the interviewswere the motivations and the strategies to interact, the government role and the main obstacles to the interaction.Resultsi) Industry-university linkages in the UK pharmaceutical system of innovationKleyn, Kitney and Atun (2007) affirmed that the UK and European government support for collaboration between BioPharmacompanies and universities has been increasing during the last couple of years. Recent investments from the UK Governmentin the health sector classified it as a national priority and commissioned a report to identified investments priorities until 2015with special attention to university knowledge-transfer groups. Nevertheless, the pharmaceutical sector has increased significantlyits interaction with research organisations, not only because of Government policies and programmes, but also because ofcompanies’ strategies to grow.Some evidences confirm the increase in interactions. Between 1981 and 2000, the number of co-authorship between companiesand universities had a significant growth in Chemistry, Medicine and Biology (Calvert and Patel, 2003). The CIS 4 shows thatuniversities and other higher education institutions are the third most important collaborators for the manufactures of chemicaland chemical products sector in the UK (Eurostat, 2008) . According to the High Education-Business and Community InteractionSurvey 2007-2008 (HEFCE, 2009) the total income from knowledge exchange activities in the UK in 2007/2008 was £2,812billion; contracted research was the activity with the largest amount of income, £835 million. Moreover, commercial partners(industry) were the most important beneficiaries of the university third-stream priorities.ii) Motivations, obstacles and strategies to interactionThe interviews were important to show the motivations, obstacles and strategies of companies and research organisations tointeract.The main motivation of pharmaceutical companies to interact with research organisations is the access to researchers’ knowledgeand expertise. Nevertheless, university researchers are interested in the possibility to turn the research into a product, or totake the technology or molecule from the early stages through the development till it gets to the market.Negotiation over the IP was identified as a frequent obstacle to the industry-university relationship. As a reason for this difficultythe achievement of an effective contract was also repeatedly mentioned as a difficulty in these interactions. Publication wasalso mentioned as a common problem on this kind of collaborative activities. The ways companies and research organisationsfound to overcome these obstacles were being flexible, discussing and negotiating case-by-case; having routines to help theinteractions and build networks and having experienced academic staff in the company department that deal with thecollaborations.In terms of strategies to build links with research organisations, the companies’ strategy is to go out and look for academicresearchers for consultancy, services and collaborative research. Research organisations’ strategies to promote interactionwith companies occur in two levels. Either it can occur directly through personal contacts. When companies’ employeescontact researchers and researchers contact companies’ employees in conferences, meetings or because of their publications.Alternatively, it takes place through the liaison agencies from the research organisations that were created to build a network tofuture interactions, to market out the research, to promote events with companies and academic researchers and to deal withcontractual agreements and IP rights that will come up from the interactions established.Madrid, October 20, 21 & 22 - 2010253