UCSD - University of California - San Diego

08/05/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/05/2026 11:01

Building Better Partnerships: UC San Diego Reimagines Industry Engagement

Published Date

August 05, 2026

Article Content

UC San Diego relies on business partnerships to keep the campus running, with suppliers providing a diverse array of items from lab equipment and delivery services to beverages and market staples. Although nearly every area of the university engages with industry partners, historically the structure of these partnerships has been decentralized and transactional.

At the Partnership Summit, UC San Diego Chief Procurement Officer Ted Johnson spoke to 110 industry executives and university leaders on how to better advance and integrate partnerships.

Inspired by the university's focus on innovation, Chief Procurement Officer Ted Johnson and his team collaborated with Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation Corinne Peek-Asa to reimagine how the university engages with industry partners. The goal? To better support the university's mission and provide greater value to collaborators.

"Many corporate partners have relationships across different departments, schools, or researchers, but few have a truly holistic partnership with our university," Johnson explained.

The shift toward more integrated partnerships began several years ago with the creation of the Campus Partnership Program. Designed to go beyond one-time, siloed transactions, the program has been successful in cultivating more integrated, institution-wide relationships. Since this shift in approach, partners are connected to stakeholders from multiple disciplines across the university. As a result, several supplier agreements do more than just provide products - they encompass technology, sustainability and talent development initiatives. The aim is that this type of partnership will become the standard for how the university engages with suppliers.

Speaking at the Partnership Summit, Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation Corinne Peek-Asa highlighted that moving away from transactional relationships generates greater impact for the university and its partners.

"When we move from transactional relationships to long-term collaboration with our business partners, we generate more impact with models that are more strategic and efficient," said Peek-Asa. "Investment in a long-term, integrated approach gives us the opportunity to learn more about each partner's goals, areas of expertise, and operating principles, which helps us move quickly on opportunities that have benefits for all partners."

To continue the effort to engage more deeply on partnerships, Johnson organized the inaugural UC San Diego Partnership Summit, which marked a significant step in the university's move toward holistic relationships.

"We took an innovative approach with the summit because most of our partners had never had the opportunity to engage with university leadership and many of our leaders didn't realize the scope of these partners' impact," Johnson said. "The goal was to bring these groups together and foster real dialogue."

Designed to be interactive, the summit brought together 110 industry executives and university leaders to discuss how to better advance and integrate partnerships. There were lively discussions on how to engage with the university and co-design sessions designed to spark innovation. University leaders facilitated the co-design sessions, which centered around topics including: research and innovation collaboration, resilient infrastructure, talent development, sustainable supply chain, AI, ethics and human-centered transformation, and data and digital infrastructure. Rady School of Management students recorded insights from the sessions and will publish a white paper that identifies common themes and key actions to improve collaboration. The co-design sessions also led to new pilot projects that will further bridge the gap between academia and industry while providing experiential learning opportunities for students.

Another key insight gained from the Partnership Summit? Navigating the university can be challenging.

"Our partners are ready and willing to invest in new ways," Johnson said. "They have ideas, but they're not always sure where to bring them."

As a result, UC San Diego has offered and continues to explore additional opportunities for collaboration. For example, a recent webinar was held to help industry leaders understand research funding and a Supply Chain Summit is also being planned in partnership with the Rady School of Management.

"These spin-offs are a natural extension of the conversations we started last spring," Johnson said.

UC San Diego plans to host future Partnership Summits and may expand the model across the broader University of California system.

"With the help of AI automation, the procurement field is moving away from transactional work to partnership management," Johnson said. "That's why I'm so passionate about this. The future is about building deeper, mission-aligned relationships with industry partners which will fundamentally change how universities engage globally."

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