State of the relationship report 2025
Think tank: NCUB
Author(s): NCUB
December 2, 2025
This report from UK think tank NCUB looks at the evidence on collaboration between universities and businesses.
NCUB’s annual State of the Relationship report is an evidence tool to strengthen collaboration between universities and businesses. It offers important insights into the scale and nature of interactions between universities and businesses, identifying patterns and trends over time. This should inform the priorities of policymakers and the collaborative practices of universities and businesses.
The main findings of this report are: 81,499 interactions between universities and businesses were recorded in 2023/24, an increase of 6.4% from the year before; An 8.7% rise in the number of university interactions with small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), reaching 56,755 engagements; A 1.3% increase in the number of large business and university interactions, bringing total engagements with large firms to 24,744 A 2.1% real-terms declined in total income from business collaboration (excluding CPD), returning overall business collaboration income to £1.34bn.
