Stable academic collaboration in Biomedical Engineering
Long term academic engagement between a hospital and an engineering-oriented university shows surprisingly stable forms of interaction through joint projects, in a new study of academic engagement, between Sahlgrenska University Hospital and Chalmers University of Technology. The stability of the engagement was maintained by a principle of pairing engineering with medicine, during a process of scientific research, technological development, and clinical use.
A recent article by Professors McKelvey and Saemundsson analyzes how and why academic engagement can follow a remarkably stable pattern for a long time. The authors find that the stability of the engagement was maintained by a principle of pairing engineering with medicine during a process of scientific research, technological development, and clinical use. The study comprises Biomedical engineering, in Sweden, between Sahlgrenska University Hospital and Chalmers University of Technology, both located in Gothenburg.
- Biomedical engineering is an interesting case of emerging technologies, because developing the field and useful health-oriented products requires a combination of engineering, medical scientific
knowledge, and clinical use, says Maureen McKelvey.
Academic engagement led to development of knowledge networks
The article analyzes the long-term pattern through the concept of academic engagement, which helps to focus our attention to important ways in which universities interact with society that are not considered when focusing on licensing of university research and academic entrepreneurship. Academic engagement – here studied through centres, PhD thesis and collaborative research - lead to the development of knowledge networks, which tie together individuals and organizations with differing institutional logics
Maureen McKelvey and Rögnvaldur Saemundsson provide a historical perspective in studying how one version of academic engagement is built and maintained over a long period. They do so by examining collaborative research projects in the context of advanced graduate education at Chalmers University of Technology and the Sahlgrenska University Hospital, over seven decades, between 1948 and 2022. The contribution here, in addition to the historical account, lies in their examining the underlying mechanisms for maintaining relationships, despite new organizations, new ideas, and technological change being introduced externally. Yet, the authors also recognize that the notion of pairing medicine and engineering through biomedical engineering has also been recurrently.
Article
Published in: Management and Organizational History
Authors
Maureen McKelvey, Professor at the University AvÐÔ°®
Rögnvaldur Saemundsson, Professsor at the University of Iceland