University-industry knowledge transfer in the agri-food: a systematic literature review

This work aims to provide a systematic literature review on the interaction between universities and the agri-food industry in knowledge transfer processes. The objective is to provide an overview of the studies that analysed this phenomenon to identify (i) what has already been investigated, (ii) what are the main contributions of universities to the agri-food industry’s innovation process, and (iii) what are the potential future research directions related to this topic. Our study highlighted that U-I interactions in this industry take place at four different levels, namely technological-level, capability-level, organisational-level, and relational-level. Across these different levels of interaction, it emerged that universities played a prominent role in the process of innovative transformation of the agri-food industry through knowledge transfer and technology developments within R&D collaborative programmes. We propose avenues for future research and implications for practitioners and policymakers.