Research-led innovation to deliver sustainable wastewater and drainage technologies

The “third mission” of universities encompasses a range of activities including University Industry Collaboration (UIC), which has a long and celebrated history in wastewater research and development. The factors determining the success of UIC have been investigated by a number of researchers with motivation, absorptive capacity and trust being often cited as significant. Universities and governments around the world have programmes in place to promote this activity. This paper considers the landscape for UIC for wastewater research and innovation in the UK and then looks at two case studies from the University of Portsmouth. One with a large water utility and one with a small to medium size company who supply package plants and other solutions for larger sites. Both collaborations are based around a unique field station facility, which allows large-scale trials with onsite laboratories with several example projects detailed. The UICs are analysed according to the proposed models for success to understand how motivation, adsorptive capacity and trust have been addressed.