‘It has to be together’: why businesses work with universities

For an industry like aerospace, you're not going to get a thriving company without the wider ecosystem working. 

We need and we rely on Cranfield University and the educational system being there and supporting industry, and vice-versa. 

I don't believe we could be a successful company in the aerospace industry without that significant university-level ecosystem being there. 

It has to be together: industry and the university sector giving a consistent message to government as to where priorities are for investment and research applications. That's very powerful. 

And as we look forward to some of the challenges we've got in aerospace, if we try to reach towards zero carbon, that's critical.

There's certainly some key projects in recent years where Cranfield have led on projects that have led very directly back into work we've done then in Rolls-Royce. 

One of the examples I could pull on is the turbine coatings lab, which is in in Cranfield has led very directly to new coating technologies being applied to our civil airline engines in the recent years. 

That's an example of something being fast tracked through university research and into the engine.

We tend to use academics often as an extension of our sort of engineering capability. That allows us to tap into a wider group of expertise. 

We also ask them to do lead projects, but also to answer questions for us where we're looking for an independent view and not to fall into the trap of groupthink.

From a student's perspective, we are clearly dependent on having a steady supply of really high quality, in this case, engineering students. It’s important that we use our university relationships almost as a recruiting ground to bring people into the company.

Find out more about Rolls-Royce's partnership with Cranfield University.