Why a Corporate Partnership with ASE?

• Access to cutting edge research: for any innovative company, research and development is a key success factor for sustainable and profitable growth. However, research comes at a considerable cost, and usually has a relatively long payback period. Furthermore, a company’s research is usually rather narrow-scoped as it is driven by current business needs and limitations. On the other hand, research carried out by our university (or any university for that matter) has a more scientific approach with a broader scope, is led by the absolute top in the relevant field and is carried out objectively, complying with the latest standards and insights. Corporate partners not only have the advantage of having ‘first eyes’ on relevant research, but are even encouraged to actively contribute in its purpose and setup. In that way, they can use early insights in scientific research as a complementary tool for their own research, or even avoid in-house research projects which would require a considerably higher investment.
• Access to top talent: for any growing company, or companies with growth ambitions, the War for Talent is a considerable challenge. Any manager with some experience understands and appreciates the tremendous difference a talented employee can make, in comparison to an average one. Embedded in the culture of the University of Amsterdam, and the central part of our positioning as a University, is the fact that we ‘foster independent minds that make a difference in business and society’. Our students are encouraged to occasionally deviate from the paved path and think ‘outside the box’, which is one of the factors that makes them different from ‘average’.  Corporate partners are offered the opportunity to actively approach students for internships or company visits, hence creating an early relationship with talented potentially future employees.
• Critical reflection on own activities and organisation: interaction with scientific staff from the ASE may stimulate critical reflection on a company's own activities and organisation. An example concerns the question which data to collect for the analysis of business activities and opportunities and how to organise these data. Our researchers have substantial insight into the data requirements to enable scientifically sound analysis.
• Exposure: Research results will usually be published in international scientific journals. Besides this, non-technical spin-offs may be published in more popular, but usually wider-read, outlets. Quite often research leads to position papers or op-eds in newspapers.