Knowledge Transfer from University to Industry

Human resources development by means of training, education at universities and schools, and skill development within industry projects will be essential to foster product innovation within the African industry. It is expected that investments in Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) through educating engineering students and companies can contribute to the innovation capacity of African industry and thus stimulate the development of new and appropriate products. As a result, new businesses can arise and the market share of African products can increase considerably, both on the internal and external market. The question is how knowledge transfer to industry can be successful on the basis of this IDE approach. Since four years now a collaboration project is running between the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the School of Industrial Design engineering at TU Delft, The Netherlands. Part of this project was directly focused on Tanzanian companies. ‘Demonstration projects’ in Tanzanian industry have been conducted with the help of Delft IDE students. The aim was to transfer IDE knowledge through the creation of awareness, understanding, and capabilities among these companies. The evaluation of the project shows that not all objectives have been achieved. In following projects the approach should be adjusted with more focus on a limited number of companies involved.