Collaborations have always been vital to the growth of a business. Now, in an ever-shrinking global landscape, cross-border collaborations are more important for businesses to compete than ever before. Grants Assist’s research reveals that involving overseas professionals is the way to overcome challenges and improve mechanisms in a globalized research environment.
Such collaborations incur costs, and innovative grants provide the necessary funding to entities looking to expand their horizons.
Cross-border collaborations are critical as knowledge and discoveries are not confined by national borders. Effective collaboration is integral in scientific, legal, R&D, or other fields to push innovative boundaries and maximize societal and economic impact.
Research communities require funding to work in productive international configurations, addressing challenges, and supporting less research-intensive regions.
Innovation grants offer small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and larger operations in the product innovation and research sector the funds required to work with teams across the world. While the federal government provides some funds, others are given by state-level entities. However, they all share a common denominator: they provide financial support to make international collaboration possible.
A great example is The Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the US Department of State, CAF, Partners of America, and the Development Bank of Latin America have collaborated to establish the 100K Strong Innovation Fund. It aims to provide six grants of around $50,000 each in the 1000K Southern Cone competition to support education partnerships and climate-based exchange programs between the United States, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina.
Another example is a federally funded grant in Australia that provides SMEs with up to $50,000 in funding to hire research experts to help them grow their enterprise. The Australian government also offers a grant allowing small- and medium-sized businesses to claim up to $1 million in funds to cover commercialization costs and expenses incurred when bringing an innovation to the market.
Innovation grants enable businesses to facilitate productive cross-border connections and collaborations, ensuring exceptional diversity in their discoveries and knowledge bases. National borders don’t restrict knowledge.
While some studies mention the potential consequences of international collaboration, most research indicates the positive outcomes of reaching beyond country lines. Lawani, in 1986, found that the amount of high-quality research papers increases as the number of authors per paper rises. Similarly, Rigby and Edler (2005), Levitt and Thewall (2010), and Adams (2013) identified that international collaborations are associated with better quality papers than national collaborations, and cross-border co-authored papers often have more significant research impact.
Therefore, innovation grants are essential to make international collaboration possible and take advantage of the multiple benefits they offer.