What is Academic Consultancy?
Academic Consultancy is the provision of advice or services to a client, usually in return for a sum of money. Consultancy is normally provided in the form of expert advice or assistance which draws on or applies an individual’s knowledge and experience. A “consultant” from a university can be any academic, from professor to PhD student, or a staff member such as a lab technician or a project officer in a school/college.
It is important to understand the distinction between consultancy and research when setting up a project or collaboration with an external organisation:
Consultancy
- Usually short-term in nature
- Remunerated on a commercial basis
- Not intended to develop new IP for the University
- Solving challenges for companies or other academic institutions
- Considered as external to work carried out as part of University duties
Research
- Longer term collaborations/projects
- Funded through grants by funding bodies or by industry
- Primary purpose is the generation of new knowledge
- Can be an original investigation base don existing phenomena/facts (Basic and Applied), or producing additional research based on knowledge gained from existing research