Business development manager (R&D)

In R&D, a business development manager finds, shapes, and closes the external deals that turn research into business: partnerships, licenses, sponsored research, and joint development.

How it works in a university-industry collaboration

In a company, business development often leads the commercial side of a university deal, meaning the business case, the term sheet, and the internal approvals, while the R&D team leads the technical scope. Once the agreement is signed, business development usually hands the relationship to the project team or an alliance manager. That hand-off is where many partnerships lose momentum, as our post on what happens after you sign explains.

Universities rarely use the title. The work is split between corporate relations officers, who build company relationships across the whole university (NACRO, via NORDP News), and the tech transfer office's licensing staff. Chau, Gilman, and Serbanica describe that interface between academics and outside organizations as "blurred" (Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2017).

Translation Box: business development

On the academic side: corporate or industry relations, research development, and licensing, often in three different offices.

On the industry side: a commercial role, usually measured on deals closed, that sits between R&D, legal, and the business units.

What Helikon does with it

On the Pro plan, the Partnership Pipeline tracks each deal from lead to signed agreement, with a next action and due date on every card, and turns a signed deal into a shared project in one step.