Case study in academic and industry collaboration: the development of an adolescent targeted sun protection intervention in NSW

Academic and industry collaboration is increasingly identified as a critical element in the future health of Australians through linking theory and practice, with the major priority for academic institutions being the identification of new knowledge and the transfer of this knowledge into changes in policy and health services. Collaborations between academia and industry are increasingly encouraged in Australia by research funding schemes such as ARCLinkage and, more recently, NHMRC Partnerships. While a recent US study suggests that such schemes have a moderate effect on academics’ propensity to work with industry (Bozeman and Gaughan, 2007), industry groups have recognised the value of engaging in partnerships with academic institutions in joint knowledge production (Lam, 2007). However, it has been suggested that such collaborations are problematic as the two groups can have diverging agendas (Mitev and Venters, 2009); and differing priorities regarding the dissemination of findings (Welsh et al., 2007).