27 May 2021 Here’s How R&D Partnerships Can Put Your Business on the Fast Track
Research and development (R&D) partnerships are strategic partnerships between organisations and businesses. They connect a limited number of partners, and are devoted to the R&D of new products. The partners contribute funds to pay for certain R&D opportunities and are entitled to a percentage of the profit that the resultant products earn, as well as access to the benefits that the product offers.
Benefits of R&D Partnerships
While R&D brings about valuable innovations and helps organisations stay ahead of their competitors, studies have shown that the actual R&D expenditure of businesses often fall below their targeted expenditure, as it involves trying out previously untested ideas and hence, carries a certain amount of risk and potential lack of returns.
R&D partnerships can potentially allay these concerns, by helping businesses to maximise their return on R&D investments, and gain quick and inexpensive access to technology.
Through facilitating joint R&D partnerships, SIIRD has observed a few benefits that R&D partnerships can bring:
1. Bridging Gaps in Expertise and Knowledge
Partnering can give you access to a wider range of expertise, since a strategic R&D partner possesses complementary experience, skills and knowledge.
2. Enabling Access to Resources and Networks
Through R&D partnerships, companies can pool resources such as specialised knowledge, funding, facilities and networks. Cross-border R&D partnerships also have the added benefit of access to global and regional networks. With SIIRD’s focus on commercialisation, cross-border R&D partnerships help to open up new and unexplored markets by tapping on each partner’s existing networks.
3. Shortening Your Go-to-Market Plan
By leveraging such resources and networks, R&D partnerships help to shorten the time needed to achieve technical breakthroughs, and commercialise new systems and products. A quick and smooth go-to-market plan makes all the difference in the fast-paced world of innovation, where small and large companies alike are expected to stay agile in response to changing business and consumer needs.
R&D partnerships can be undertaken by almost any type of organisation, whether small or large companies, private or public entities, commercial or educational bodies. They are particularly popular among technology companies, medical and educational institutions, as well as government entities. R&D partnerships are also a more common strategy where innovation is particularly high-cost, such as in the automobile and pharmaceutical industries.
R&D partnerships under SIIRD
The Singapore-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation (SIIRD) is born out of the cooperation between Enterprise Singapore (ESG) and the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA). Its mission is to promote, facilitate and support joint industrial R&D collaboration between Singapore-based and Israel-based companies across all industries for successful commercialisation of products, services and/or technologies.
SIIRD’s support extends to finding the right strategic R&D partner for you, as well as co-funding joint R&D and pilot projects. We help to defray R&D costs and risks involved, without taking any equity or IP rights in the R&D project.
SIIRD also plays a pivotal role in overcoming challenges associated with R&D partnerships, such as intellectual property (IP) and its ownership rights. As a Singapore-Israel cooperation, we can also serve as an intermediary to facilitate fair and open communication between R&D partners to achieve an alignment of interests.
SIIRD recognises that R&D partnerships involve additional risks and uncertainties that other types of partnerships might not. SIIRD’s focus on commercialisation helps to ensure that that the technologies developed within its funded projects have high potential for commercialisation for companies to get a return on their investment.
Interested in R&D partnerships under SIIRD? Reach out to us here.