“Ten years of Verification for Collaboration have given the curiosity to create through new constellations”

The set-up is simple. One project. Nine months. At least two parties. One from inside academia and one from outside.

For those granted support, VFS (Verification for Collaboration) is a means to discover new ways to enrich their research. For Uppsala University, it is an opportunity to create space for a new and innovation-focused research culture.

Many clichés describe collaboration

Ten years have passed since VFS was first granted. The criteria have changed slightly, but the basic principle is the same: VFS is a way for researchers and external actors to quickly get started on joint projects with the support of the University's collaboration managers.

The grant is currently administered by Uppsala University Innovation Partnership Office, which provides support for collaborative projects involving researchers at the University and external parties.

“We tear down walls, build bridges and lower thresholds. There are many clichés to describe support for collaborative projects. But that's what it's all about: making it easier for researchers to work together with external parties and vice versa," says Jenny Nordquist, Head of Uppsala University Innovation Partnership Office.

Only researchers at a university can apply

VFS funding comes from the University and can be applied for by researchers at Uppsala University. The external party could be a company, a non-profit organisation or a public authority.

“An important component is that it should be possible to see a social benefit through the project over the long term. To make it all work, both partners need to have a mututal interest.

For the external party, the value they hope to gain may be a breakthrough in the development of a new product or service. For the researcher, this could be results that advance the research frontier through aspects such as unique measurement data or analytical tools from the company or organisation with which they collaborate.

“Another important element of VFS, as in all collaborative research, is that both parties retain their identity. The researcher remains independent, and the company remains the company.”

Funding for upgraded research culture

VFS is also intended to build a certain culture at universities.

“I feel that collaboration builds a culture of challenge-driven knowledge exchange. It’s a culture where people are curious to create things through constellations they haven't tried before; where knowledge is naturally disseminated through the partners involved and directly applied.

At the same time, collaborative research places other demands on the researcher compared to a traditional research project, and there are good reasons for those who want to try it to get help, not least in the planning phase.

“It requires a certain mindset to succeed,” notes Nordquist.

She mentions, by way of example, that those involved must be aware that collaborative projects involving two parties may have conflicting interests.

“It’s important to identify which interests can be realised in a project and which cannot. Our collaboration managers are good at advising on this aspect.”

What results have you seen in the 10 years since VFS began?

“Of course we’ve seen traditional research results in the form of individual researchers publishing their papers. The researcher's right to publish results is something we help guarantee through the collaboration agreements that are signed. But we have also seen the emergence of entire innovation environments. It started with one person who had a VFS project and then progressed with it through funding from Vinnova, for example,” recalls Nordquist.

Marie-Louise Olsen