This track aims to examine how R&D infrastructures are structured and sustained to foster collaboration between academic institutions, public sector research facilities, and industrial enterprises. This collaborative capacity is increasingly vital, as R&D infrastructures play a critical role in preserving resilience in an era of technological disruption. Public investments in infrastructure and public–private technology transfer initiatives are widely viewed as beneficial for both economic growth and societal advancement, although their return on investment remains difficult to quantify (Cheah & Ho, 2020; Del Bo, 2016). R&D infrastructures encompass a diverse range of facilities, including laboratories, information networks, testbeds, and specialised services that support university-industry collaboration and facilitate the application of research outcomes in business contexts.

A key component of any R&D infrastructure facility is its research equipment, which often depends on complementary assets (Teece, 1986) such as skilled technical and user support staff, maintenance provision, preparation and analysis facilities, and general supporting equipment. A full-service facility should offer well-maintained equipment with supported access, even when recalibration is needed to accommodate diverse user needs (Barnes et al., 2006; Flanagan et al., 2002). These complementary assets are essential for enabling collaborative R&D projects that lead to commercialisation with industry partners. In countries where government policies aim to connect SMEs to R&D infrastructure facilities, particularly those SMEs with no prior experience in R&D collaboration, many of these firms may require tailored forms of public support to access such services (Jalonen et al., 2025).

From the perspective of industry stakeholders, several critical issues shape the role of public R&D infrastructures as strategic sites for university–industry collaboration, especially amid technological disruption. These include how firms engage with infrastructure services across phases of the R&D lifecycle - such as prototype development, process validation at lab and pilot scales, or product usability testing. A focused examination of these dimensions can yield deeper insights into the structural and operational challenges, along with strategic opportunities, that firms face when pursuing collaborative engagement with university-based R&D laboratories.

Finally, several R&D infrastructure facilities have been established on university campuses through long-standing strategic alliances with large industrial firms. A key measure of success for these partnerships is the R&D facility’s ability to deliver new technologies and support business models that generate substantial commercial impact, alongside contributing academic outputs to the public domain (Malik et al., 2011). However, achieving this objective may require a considerable gestation period.

This track encourages contributions from diverse viewpoints and fields of study. We welcome both theoretical and empirical papers, whose topics may include, but are not limited to, the following research questions:

• What roles do R&D infrastructures play in fostering university-industry collaboration and facilitating knowledge and technology transfer?
• How do firms utilise the opportunities provided by R&D infrastructures and what kinds of challenges do they face in such collaborations?
• How do research organisations that provide R&D infrastructure facilities for both research and business use reconcile the demands of different stakeholders?
• How do public funding and other policy instruments support university-industry collaboration in R&D infrastructures?