Developing Indicators for Measuring the Impacts of University–Industry Collaborations: An Exploratory Approach

This study presents an exploratory proposal of indicators for assessing the impacts of university-industry R&D collaborations (UICs), based on a three-phase methodological process: (i) the identification of impacts through a systematic literature review; (ii) the validation and refinement of these impacts based on 30 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from academia, industry, and society; and (iii) an analysis of national and international institutional documents aimed at suggesting indicators applicable to each identified impact. The result is a structured framework comprising nineteen impacts and their corresponding proposed indicators, whenever feasible, based on criteria of practical applicability and contextual alignment. The analysis revealed both the potential for adapting existing instruments and persistent gaps in areas such as reputation, environmental impact, and collaborative benchmarking. These findings reinforce the need for participatory evaluation approaches that are sensitive to the complexity and temporality. Moreover, the proposed framework not only allows the measurement of UICs impact, but also offers a foundation for the formulation of public policies focused on UICs.