Business growth through collaboration

A collaborative business network is made up of organisations that agree to collaborate to achieve specific business objectives. For example, to jointly employ expertise, achieve economies of scale or improve market access for their products.

The organisations are usually independent of each other and diverse in terms of their operating environment, culture and capital. They may also be geographically diverse. Businesses in Northern Ireland often collaborate with academia, trade organisations and other companies within and outside of Northern Ireland.

This guide explains the benefits of business collaboration. It describes what makes collaborative networking successful, the forms networking could take and how to set up a business collaboration. It also tells you where to get funding and support for collaboration.