Abstract
We must recognise that most of the goals of academia and industry differ significantly. Academia strives to provide a public good, while industry must maximise free-market returns. Naturally, these two diverging goal sets attract different types of people with different resource perspectives. The first step in finding synergy between industry and academia is to set our perspective that these goals do not oppose, where one role player gains at the cost of another. Traditionally, academia and industry collaboration revolved around solving problems, and rightly so, but can we also imagine academia as a connector between stakeholders with problems and solutions?

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Biography
Dr Riaan Bezuidenhout
Riaan Bezuidenhout started work in the accounting and tax industry after completing a B.Com degree in the early 1990s. Further mathematical statistics and finance studies led to two honours degrees, an MBA, and a move to management consulting. As business processes moved online during the early 2000s, he rekindled his childhood fascination with programming, a natural complement to business consulting, to develop business management software, which he still maintains. In 2012, it occurred to him that it would be a good idea to refresh his computer science knowledge, and he once again attended first-year classes in the subject at forty-something. Lack of career planning resulted in him continuing until he completed a BSc Honours, MSc and PhD in computer science,and he still conducts research at the University of the Free State Complex Systems Hub.

Dr Abdolhossein Naghizadeh
Dr Abdolhossein (Hossein) Naghizadeh is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Green Concrete Lab in the Department of Engineering Sciences at the University of the Free State. He specializes in materials and structures, with a particular focus on sustainable and advanced construction materials. With over 18 years of experience spanning both industry and academia, his research expertise includes materials characterization, low-carbon cement, geopolymers, and 3D printing of concrete. Dr Naghizadeh’s recent works focus on developing novel recyclable cement and pioneering technologies for concrete recycling. His research aims to enhance the sustainability of construction materials by improving the recyclability of concrete and reducing the environmental impact of cement production. His work integrates cutting-edge material science with practical engineering applications to advance circular economy principles in the construction industry.