A systematic literature review of UK university–industry collaboration for knowledge transfer: A future research agenda

This systematic review establishes what is currently known and, more importantly, what is not known about knowledge transfer (KT) between UK universities and industries. The review focuses on four central measures related to university–industry (U–I) collaboration for KT that have been previously identified in the literature: motivations; activities; barriers; and outcomes. Different rationales underpin existing studies and we frame these using two perspectives: the sociopolitical perspective and the contextual perspective. To date studies with a sociopolitical perspective have largely focused upon ‘motivations’ to engage in U–I collaboration but largely from academics’ perspectives and tangible activities and outcomes have been the foci of the contextual perspective on KT but these have rarely been sector specific. We discuss these and other major findings in terms of policy implications for future research funding.