Professor Neil Piller, School of Medicine
"I work with a team who are really committed to finding better ways to help patients with lymphoedema. Often in our area of interest, industry comes up with some fantastic ideas and unique prototype apparatus that need critical and independent testing. We can gain from conducting research with industry through corresponding publications, and through funding which enables us to conduct research which normally would not be supported by formal grant bodies such as the ARC and NHMRC. Industry partners in research come to us because they want good quality research based on good science. However sometimes, they are not aware of the complexities or of the costs involved in doing the research well, and in a way that will provide the health and medical communities with evidence that will stand to medical and scientific scrutiny.
In our experience, Flinders Consulting [now Flinders Partners] was an excellent intermediary between industry and our academic and research worlds. Research is never easy and often the results are unexpected or not as hypothesised. FC were able to take the pressure off the research team and allow them do what they do best - high quality research independently. Having a communication conduit (FC) allowed for a high level link between researchers and industry, however, we were still at arms length which ensured the independence of the research process (once of course the industry and research team had worked out the parameters of the investigation in concert). This enabled transparency to others outside of the process, which meant that the research undertaken was seen as being of high quality and independent to industry, so both parties obtained maximum benefit."
