Panel Discussion: Academia–Industry Collaboration

As part of the DiSC Research Cocktail series, we brought together a panel of experts from academia and industry. The panel consisted of the following experts.

• Frank van Harmelen is a Professor in Knowledge Representation & Reasoning at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is also the Principal Investigator at the Hybrid Intelligence Resaerch Center.

• Svetlana Khapova is Associate Dean and Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Leadership at the School of Business and Economics (SBE) of the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam. She is also the Academic Director of the VU Leadership Academy.

• Aart van Halteren is an Endowed Professor of Health Behaviour Informatics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is also a principal scientist with Philips Research.

• Ilja Heitlager is the Chief Innovation Officer at Schuberg Philis.

The session explored key aspects of working with industry, including understanding expectations, navigating administrative challenges, initiating partnerships, and leveraging university support structures.

Successful academia–industry collaboration requires a clear understanding of the company’s perspective, as partners may be motivated by access to talent, fresh ideas, or long-term innovation. Effective communication plays a crucial role, with academic insights needing to be translated into language that aligns with business priorities such as impact and value. Building such collaborations is rarely straightforward; instead, they emerge over time through networks, visibility, and sustained engagement via conferences, alumni connections, and joint initiatives. At the same time, practical challenges—particularly administrative processes and intellectual property negotiations.