  University-industry research collaboration is one of the major research
policy priorities of advanced economies. In this study, we try to identify the
main drivers that could influence the propensity of academics to engage in
research collaborations with the private sector, in order to better inform
policies and initiatives to foster such collaborations. At this purpose, we
apply an inferential model to a dataset of 32,792 Italian professors in order
to analyze the relative impact of individual and contextual factors affecting
the propensity of academics to engage in collaboration with industry, at
overall level and across disciplines. The outcomes reveal that the typical
profile of the professor collaborating with industry is a male under age 40,
full professor, very high performer, with highly diversified research, and who
has a certain tradition in collaborating with industry. This professor is
likely to be part of a staff used to collaborating with industry, in a small
university, typically a polytechnic, located in the north of the country.
