Strengthening collaboration and developing new partnerships with industry and knowledge users at the local, national, and international levels enhance the university’s visibility, strengthen its competitiveness, and improve its economic position.
The University of Primorska offers a range of collaboration opportunities:
Collaboration based on a research contract, where the University or one or more of its members agree with a company to carry out research addressing a challenge identified by the company, which pays for the service provided.
Collaboration based on a service agreement or consultancy agreement, where the University or one or more of its members agree with a company to provide, for an appropriate fee, the requested consultancy services or other services related to the use of research equipment, specific knowledge, or expertise.
Contractual research collaboration is a form of cooperation in which partners agree to jointly participate in conducting research. This involves combining the partners’ existing knowledge, the personnel involved, as well as financial resources. It is important that the agreement clearly defines the background knowledge and other contributions (e.g., personnel, financial resources, in-kind contributions) provided by each partner to the project.
Opportunities for collaboration between academia and industry are also provided through national and European projects co-financed by various funding programmes. Through numerous international research and development projects, the University of Primorska is strongly integrated into the European Research Area. These projects can provide opportunities for cooperation with companies and for joint research and development activities supported by European funding.
Participation in such projects requires prior agreements on intellectual property rights arising from project activities. Already at the application stage, partners must define their intention to protect project results through intellectual property rights after the completion of the project and ensure their effective use.
The Centre for the Development and Transfer of Knowledge can assist you in identifying suitable project opportunities, finding project partners, and arranging intellectual property rights.
The University of Primorska offers knowledge and expertise that companies and industry partners can use through licensing agreements or agreements on the transfer of intellectual property rights. Such agreements typically define whether the rights to use the knowledge or intellectual property are exclusive or non-exclusive, specify their duration and geographical scope, and may also include limitations to specific fields of use.
In collaboration between the university and industry, we often encounter data and information that are not protected but may represent a competitive advantage and are therefore considered confidential. To prevent the disclosure or misuse of such information, we use confidentiality agreements, also known as NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements). These agreements allow us to share our unprotected knowledge or ideas with others in order to assess potential interest in future collaboration.
Through such agreements, we protect the information we disclose (knowledge or ideas) while preventing the recipient from using it without our consent or disclosing it to unauthorised third parties. It is recommended that a confidentiality agreement is signed whenever information is shared with a third party where its disclosure could cause economic harm to the University of Primorska, its members, or its business partners, or could jeopardise the subsequent protection of intellectual property rights.
It is important to note that such an agreement does not grant any intellectual property rights related to the disclosed information.
Students may also be involved in collaborations between faculties and industry partners, where university researchers engage them to help develop additional knowledge and skills or to support the preparation of their final theses. Participation in such collaborations entails certain rights and obligations for students, as the activities may lead to results with commercial potential for the participating industry partner. Therefore, it is advisable to conclude a tripartite agreement between the University of Primorska, the industry partner, and the student before entering into such collaboration.