Collaboration between academia and industry has been the focus of numerous government reports and initiatives over the past 15 years, and is increasingly recognized as an effective way to capitalize on the UK's world-class research base. However, there is a need to further understand the role of such collaborations in the field of translational medicine, where the path to market is particularly lengthy, expensive, and risky, due to complexities associated with the clinical trial process. This research uses a mixed methods approach to investigate collaboration in translational medicine at the University of Oxford. The project comprises three principal stages. First, a broad understanding of the current landscape of academia-industry collaboration in translational medicine was obtained by administering a questionnaire to academics who had received industry funding. Next, a deeper understanding of the barriers to collaboration was sought through semi-structured interviews with 27 academics. Finally, potential strategies to reduce practical barriers to the collaboration process were investigated through interviews with members of three groups within the university who interact directly with industry: Research Services, Oxford University Innovation, and Business Development. This research constitutes the first empirical study on university-industry collaboration in translational research in the United Kingdom. It contributes to existing theory through the development of a new theoretical framework for the evaluation of barriers in terms of a) the practicalities of the collaboration process, b) the institutional environment and c) presiding cultures. Through these analyses, differences in experiences of barriers to collaboration emerged for clinical and non-clinical researchers. Furthermore, industry was seen as playing a crucial role in the translation of new therapeutics, especially in the funding of research that was perceived as being ‘too risky’ for Research Councils. Thus, reducing barriers to university-industry collaboration was seen as important to the realisation of public benefit from university research. Barriers were seen as being overcome, or avoided, via the formation of relationships between academics and companies at several different levels; while systems exist within the university to facilitate this, awareness and uptake of these systems was poor amongst the study population. Finally, if universities are to deliver impact as a key metric of performance, incentives within the university need to reward academics for commercialisation activities, in addition to publication. Through the suggestion of long and short-term strategies and a detailed analysis of industrial collaboration in this setting, this research has implications for both university and government policy.

This study looks at Open Innovation in Research and Development projects and explores the nature of collaboration and leadership characteristics. Thereby perspectives of both industrial and academic partners are considered, focusing primarily on the project level of the collaboration. It is based on the understanding that leadership plays a crucial role in bringing the partners successfully together, based on the prior understanding that academia and industry are potentially different in the nature, objectives and working dynamics of research and development.   This thesis begins with examining the existing literature on the concept of Open Innovation, including benefits and drawbacks of such projects. This leads to uncovering the managerial challenges that such projects encounter which can be mitigated by effective leadership. For this reason, relevant theories on leadership are explored, especially focusing on leadership in R&D contexts, as these kind of projects have special requirements from leaders that differ from traditional projects.  This research is qualitative in nature and takes an abductive approach to theory. 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted, consulting with heads of R&D departments from industrial companies, professors in charge of research labs at universities and representatives from intermediary organisations. The study is exploratory and cross-sectional in nature, as open innovation collaborations in Sweden, the UK and the Netherlands were in the centre of attention. The process of analysis implied the use of a template analysis, which provided the researchers with enough flexibility to code, categorize, and interpret necessary findings. The results show that the nature of Open Innovation collaborations differs from case to case, from mere contractual relationships to collaborative partnerships with a high level of interaction on a daily basis. The key motive for both partners is finance-based, as the universities gain access to funding and the company can save on research expenses. Additionally, companies benefit from access to academic expertise and from potential governmental funding.  Further, there is not a single leader in an industry-university collaboration, rather each entity has a leader of their own and collaborative working is fostered by them. It is deduced that no single leadership theory fits best in the operational level of R&D open innovation functioning, rather it is a mixture of a few popular theories which were predominant in collaborative relationships. The characteristics of leaders in open innovation were deduced and autonomy, communication and joint problem-solving have a prominent role in furthering the R&D collaborative relationship. As a result, a connection between leadership and Open Innovation collaborations was explored.