The third seminar in the RACI/SCI series “Industry meets Academia” focusing on “Collaboration” was held on Wednesday February 13th at the BASF offices in Southbank, Melbourne. The 30 or so registrants were treated to three very informative, interesting and intriguing presentations from our three speakers.
Dr Richard Thwaites, Australia International group Chair
Dr Ian Dagley talked about his experiences as CEO of the very successful Cooperative Research Centre for Polymers, which involved numerous collaborations between universities, research organisations and industrial participants. The other two were Dr Ian James, currently Enterprise Manager for Chemistry at Monash University, and Mr Tim Bowser, formerly with GSK and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, who brought an industry perspective to collaborations.
Although coming from different backgrounds and bringing different perspectives to the important subject of collaboration between academia and industry, all had very similar messages for successful collaborations and collaborators: trust, clarity of purpose and commitment. A lively panel discussion followed the formal presentations, which was continued over dinner at a nearby restaurant at the conclusion of the evening.
Many thanks again to Dr Yvonne Mah of BASF (and President of the Victorian Branch of the RACI) for hosting and chairing the meeting, and to BASF for making their offices available.
The next seminar in the series, held on Wednesday 10 April, will focus on “Education” and will include speakers from RMIT University and the University of Melbourne, as well as the former Lead Scientist in Victoria.
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