Significant research is produced in the academic sector, often without recourse to industry or practitioner requirements. Leveraging the research output of academia can only be effectively maximised by collaborative, contextual approaches to its design and interpretation, and where both researchers and practitioners consider each other's requirements. So far, generally poor levels of engagement between academics and practitioners has done little to enhance competitiveness and industrial performance. To counteract this, effective academic -business engagement requires the development of a greater understanding of the knowledge needs of the business communities by academia, the awareness and greater understanding of the knowledge available from Universities, and the provision of a framework for collaboration, particularly identifying cross-disciplinary opportunities leveraging the wide knowledge base that exists. Engagement is considered from the following perspectives: context, content and processes. The context relates to the operating environment that the firm is in and the alignment of the firm's goals and objective with that environment. This means that firms can adopt both formal and informal approaches to the demands of the operating environment by engaging in formal or informal business-academia collaboration. The content refers to the programme of action areas selected as part of the collaboration framework. Finally, the process refers to how the collaboration is handled - its organization and coordination, as well as motivation and incentives. The importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between academia and practitioners is reflected in the range of activities to encourage and facilitate it. A significant number of businesses will be identified that have potential for greater competitive advantage. Collaboration will involve functional forum activities. These include forums on marketing, HR, Innovation and SME's, engagement fellowships and placements, engagement workshops/distinguished professorial addresses and a high profile series of distinguished addresses from high profile national and international business leaders. Finally, a Business Summit will provide a focus to bring together all those involved in the activities. A major high profile academic and/or business leader will be the keynote speaker(s) at this event.