Laura Goodfellow
Laura Goodfellow of Interface with Ronnie Murphy, Secretary of St Andrews Business Club.
St Andrews business people hear how university collaboration can boost profits
Members and guests of St Andrews Business Club heard how Interface can help businesses increase their profits by matching them up with Scottish academic institutions with the niche knowledge they require.
Laura Goodfellow, Head of Business Engagement at Interface, the Scottish body which promotes innovative business-academic collaborations, told the audience at the club’s latest free early evening business issues seminar how companies can approach it to work with academia in order to develop new products, processes and services which lead to increased turnover, profits and productivity.
Once they specify what they’re after, Interface communicates that to universities and collates the resulting offers of assistance before passing them on and monitoring progress.
To date Interface has supported more than 1,200 collaborative projects by matching businesses from all sectors to universities and research institutions across the country to find the right expertise, technologies and facilities. 79% of businesses surveyed have or predict that they will increase their turnover as a result. Its website can be found at www.interface-online.org.uk
The seminar was the third in the series supported by Business Gateway Fife and is part of the drive by the club to increase its membership through allowing business owners, entrepreneurs and managers working in St Andrews to sample the benefits of membership before joining.
