Where Industry and Academia Meet: Turning “Dating” into Sustainable Partnerships in CEE Health Innovation

On 26 January in Riga, the BioPhoT project hosted its Industry Day—a lively meeting point for around 200 researchers, industry representatives, entrepreneurs, and investors. At the heart of the programme was a panel discussion with a deliberately playful title: “What hinders successful industry–academia dating?” Yet the conversation addressed a very serious topic: how to move from occasional contacts to long-term collaboration that translates excellent research into real-world solutions.

That question resonates strongly with Alliance4Life and our Horizon Europe project A4L_BRIDGE (Bridging the Research and Innovation Gap in Life Sciences). Across Central and Eastern Europe, outstanding science and promising technologies often emerge in “pockets of excellence”—but too frequently they face missing links in the innovation chain: limited access to business networks, fragmented collaboration with industry, and fewer structured pathways for research results to reach users, investors, and markets. A4L_BRIDGE is designed to help change exactly that—by strengthening the broader innovation ecosystem around our institutions and supporting reforms that make collaboration and innovation more systematic, predictable, and sustainable.

A discussion across the “quadruple helix”

The panel was moderated by Maija Dambrova, Head of Laboratory at the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, who leads A4L_BRIDGE activities focused on building stronger industry connections. She guided a discussion that deliberately brought together different viewpoints across the “quadruple helix” of academia, industry, policymakers, and innovation intermediaries.

From the policy side, the perspective of Raivis Bremšmits, State Secretary at Latvia’s Ministry of Economics, highlighted how national competitiveness increasingly depends on the ability to connect research capacity with industrial development and investment. Academic views from Professor Māris Turks (Riga Technical University) and Professor Toivo Maimets (University of Tartu, President of Alliance4Life) added a complementary message: excellent science alone is not enough—what matters is also the system around it, including the incentives, support structures, and collaboration culture that allow research to become innovation.

The innovation ecosystem lens was further strengthened by Alexander Cywes from Hello Tomorrow, who brought the experience of an international innovation platform that helps identify deep tech potential and connect it with partners and investors. On the entrepreneurial side, Anna Ramata‑Stunda (Alternative Plants) and Vitalijs Skrivelis (PharmIdea) grounded the discussion in reality: collaboration succeeds when expectations are clear, timelines are understood on both sides, and when researchers and companies can find each other through trusted channels—without excessive friction.

Alliance4Life perspective: collaboration as a competitiveness strategy

Representing Alliance4Life, Professor Toivo Maimets delivered a plenary presentation titled “Examples of science–industry collaboration for Latvia’s competitiveness.” His message was clear: strengthening collaboration between science and business is not “nice to have”—it is a strategic requirement for competitiveness, especially in regions where innovation value chains have historically been more fragmented.

This is one of the core reasons A4L_BRIDGE exists. Our project builds on Alliance4Life’s long-term work to modernise research governance and institutional culture, while expanding the focus outward—towards stronger links with industry, policymakers, end users, and society. In practice, that means supporting research-performing institutions to become even more effective drivers of innovation within their national and regional ecosystems.

From “industry dating” to structured collaboration

A key outcome of the panel discussion was a shared recognition that many industry–academia interactions still depend too much on individual relationships, personal networks, or ad hoc opportunities. What is often missing is a structured pathway—something that makes collaboration easier to start, easier to manage, and more likely to scale.

In A4L_BRIDGE, we address this challenge with a dedicated work stream titled “Industry Relationship Platform.” Its purpose is straightforward: build the missing links in innovation value chains by creating practical mechanisms that help researchers and companies discover mutual opportunities and convert them into concrete cooperation.

The aim is not to replace informal networking—rather, it is to complement it with a reliable structure that reduces friction and helps partnerships last.

Two milestones strengthening innovation pathways

The event also marked two concrete milestones: BioPhoT signed Memorandums of Understanding with EIT Health and Hello Tomorrow. These partnerships strengthen pathways for innovation across Latvia and Europe, and they open new opportunities for Latvian research teams to engage with European industry networks, innovation communities, and investors.

From an Alliance4Life perspective, this is exactly the type of ecosystem-building step that helps excellent research travel further. It connects local capability with European-level platforms and partners—and it increases the chances that scientific results will find the right route toward application, investment, and societal impact.

Communication as infrastructure: translating value across communities

Another recurring theme was the importance of transparent information sharing and communication that resonates with both scientific and industrial audiences. It’s not just about “telling stories”—it’s about translating value, expectations, and timelines between communities that operate differently.

This is also why A4L_BRIDGE invests in broader dissemination and stakeholder engagement: sustainable innovation requires trust, clarity, and a shared understanding of what success looks like. When researchers and companies understand each other’s logic and constraints, collaboration becomes faster, more effective, and more likely to lead to impact.

What comes next

BioPhoT Industry Day captured a central ambition of Alliance4Life and A4L_BRIDGE: moving from occasional interactions to systematic collaboration, supported by skills, platforms, networks, and a stronger innovation ecosystem around our institutions.

As A4L_BRIDGE progresses, our Industry Relationship Platform activities will continue building those bridges—helping ensure that future “industry–academia dates” have a much higher chance of becoming durable partnerships that deliver value for research, business, healthcare systems, and society.