Industry-Academia Open Research Collaboration: A Small Tech Company Perspective (SIDN)

Multiple studies have shown the benefits of industry-academia collaborations. In this editorial, we discuss the industry-academic research collaboration from the perspective of SIDN, a Netherlands-based privately held small tech company with a public-interest mission, which operates the .nl top-level domain. We present and compare five models for industry-academia collaboration and show how each has produced deliverables that benefit not only SIDN and its partners involved but also the broader community, including the SIGCOMM's. We also share lessons learned from building and running an in-house research team. Our goal is to encourage other industry players to pursue open, collaborative research that serves academia, industry, and society alike.