It has an international focus, guaranteeing a wide variety of visions, research methods, and opportunities for implementation. This is the rst internationally-organized Forum. Six presentations will benefit from the comments and advice given by a practitioner from the PDMA membership. In that way, we can cross the possible gap between academia and practice in a constructive manner. The idea is that there is a cross-fertilization between both audiences.
Academics can benefit from a tremendous networking opportunity.
Not only will they hear the latest NPD research, but also, for the first time, industry practitioners will be formally participating in the research conference, commenting on critical take-aways as well as providing them guidance on how to extend the research in their field. Practitioners now have an excellent opportunity to interact with academics, and inform them about the research they want to see in the future, helping them with their practice. All call for continuously monitoring the environment and creating a strategic perspective on how to deal with such challenges. Research, in the traditional academic perspective, tries to investigate and describe challenges in order to reduce the uncertainties associated with new developments and societal questions. NPD research does this specifically for the NPD field.