Member Event: External Factors Shaping University-Business Collaboration
The National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) invites you to an expert roundtable exploring the external forces reshaping how universities and businesses collaborate.
University-business partnerships are operating in an increasingly complex environment. Technological acceleration, funding and policy reforms, economic pressures, evolving workforce and skills demands, geopolitical uncertainty and changing regulatory expectations are all influencing how collaborations are formed, managed and sustained.
While these factors sit largely outside the control of individual organisations, they have profound implications for partnership effectiveness, value creation and future collaboration models.
This discussion forms part of NCUB’s Next Generation Partnerships programme and will help inform our work on Future Partnership Models and System Evolution and the Economic Value and Impact of Partnerships. Insights gathered will also contribute to broader NCUB analysis on the evolving landscape for university-business collaboration.
What we will discuss:
- The most significant external factors currently shaping university-business collaboration, including technological, financial, geopolitical, and regulatory pressures.
- How these forces are changing partnership incentives, behaviours, risks, and opportunities.
- The implications of emerging technologies, funding reforms and workforce challenges for collaboration.
- How geopolitical uncertainty, global competition and evolving governance frameworks are affecting collaboration practice.
- Which partnership models may become more important in the future, where existing approaches may become less effective, and what new forms of collaboration could emerge.
Details:
All discussions will be held under Chatham House Rule to encourage open and constructive exchange.
Date: 29 September, 2026
Duration: 90 minutes
Format: Virtual roundtable hosted on MS Teams
This invitation-only discussion will bring together senior representatives from universities, businesses, policy, funding organisations, and the wider innovation ecosystem.
To express your interest, please contact events@ncub.co.uk.
