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- Connecting academia and industry helps close the distance between theory and practice
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Academia and industry are two very different playgrounds, each with their own distinct set of goals and measurements for success. Those striving for the top of academia may be focused on perfecting their teaching skills, or aiming to publish papers on their latest work and breakthroughs. Those pursuing excellence in industry might be looking to improve their management abilities, or hone industry-specific skills that are crucial for the sector in which their company operates.
For students working towards a PhD, deciding which route to take next can be a daunting task. Although not all-encompassing, this decision usually boils down to one of two options: continue in academia, or pursue a career in different kinds of businesses and trades. Continuing research, for example in the form of a postdoc, can seem a natural next step. But this isn’t the best next step for everyone–and, besides, the academic job market is exceptionally competitive and spots are limited, especially in the current climate.
Despite many differences and apparent idiosyncrasies, academia and industry are not entirely partitioned, and there are several ‘places’ where they meet to collaborate and network. These can include conferences, collaborative research grants, and initiatives at the cutting edge of technology.
For those who make the jump to industry, especially if maintaining a research role, the change can feel quite significant. Cryptographer Luis Ruiz-Lopez believes that having access to communities with participants from both spaces can be a useful resource in any transition.
“Transitioning from academia to industry can feel isolating, especially in a small team. An open platform for community discussion is therefore very important–not just for exchanging ideas and staying updated, but also for support. Reading group sessions, for instance, often feel like therapy, offering a space to share struggles with people that are able to understand you,” Ruiz-Lopez says.
One such resource is the Real World Cryptography (RWC) conference, hosted by the International Association of Cryptographic Researchers (IACR) each year. It has become a renowned meeting point for academia and industry. This year, over 650 people attended the conference in Sofia, Bulgaria. Whilst several academics were on stage sharing their latest discoveries, we also heard from leading companies like Apple and Nokia about their widespread deployment of groundbreaking technologies such as Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE).
The atmosphere of this event, built over the past decade or so by the organizers, is one that clearly encourages interactions between academia and industry with a joint goal of progressing “real world’’ cryptography. RWC 2025 was the largest in the event’s history, which shows a strong interest in the field and also speaks to excellent efforts by the organizers.
The convergence of academia and industry
Events like RWC have been leading the charge with regards to cryptography, but luckily, there are several other examples of platforms where academia and industry keep finding productive ways to meet, collaborate, and network. These initiatives revolve around specific disciplines, technologies, and sciences–as well as related markets–striking the right balance to attract growing attention and support. Let’s look at a few concrete examples:
PROMETHEUS: PROMETHEUS was a legacy event consisting of a large-scale research effort on lattice-based cryptography, active between 2018 and 2023. Participants included various companies (Orange, Thales, etc.) and academic partners (CWI, RHUL, ENS, etc). The overall goal of the project could be summarized as providing a strong theoretical basis for the design and development of lattice-based tools, and then building and realizing advanced cryptographic tools with wide practical applications. The project stemmed from Horizon Europe, one of the EU’s key funding programs for research and innovation first launched in 2020.
AI UK: Hosted by the Alan Turing Institute, AI UK is the United Kingdom’s “National showcase of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI)”. Broadly speaking, the goal of AI UK is to “serve as a comprehensive platform showcasing how AI and data science can address real-world challenges”.
The second edition of the event took place in March this year, hosting more than 150 speakers sharing a broad range of experience from research and industry outlets, covering the latest thinking on fundamental AI, digital twins, algorithmic bias, AI ethics, and much more.
FHE.org: FHE.org is an organization of researchers and developers focused on progressing the technology of Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), one of the most innovative techniques in the field of cryptography, unlocking a new computation paradigm: the ability to compute on encrypted data without revealing any of it, guaranteeing privacy of sensitive information without impacting operations.
Created in 2019, the global community now boasts over 3,000 members from the academic world, as well as private and public sectors. The FHE.org community is built around collaboration and knowledge-sharing as a way to advance the field, and the contribution of organizations that understand and value the importance of privacy is essential to push these efforts beyond the academic field. This group hosts an annual conference the day before RWC, and this year attracted 170 participants across industry, academia, and government.
Taking the field
When it comes to events and initiatives like the ones we’ve explored here, it’s easy to see how bridging the gap between two worlds might be quite the challenge. Expectations and needs are different for attendees and organizers: Trade events might require more planning and feel more suitable for a corporate-oriented audience, whereas academic conferences could be more inclined to prioritize the content presented throughout–papers, research, and demonstrations–starting from the early stages of submission and vetting of the contributions.
Even though attending these events might require some adjustments from either side, there are many benefits in participating, especially for students and early-career researchers. For example, events like RWC offer invaluable networking opportunities with leading figures and top experts in the field, as well as with potential employees. These gatherings can also open doors on the professional front; attendees can find and explore positions in either space, while businesses and organizations can see first-hand how they could benefit from hiring a different kind of talent.
Moreover, initiatives like FHE.org, built on the principles of open science, provide the perfect environment for staying up to date with developments and advancements. Here a collaborative approach is fostered and encouraged, prioritizing the ‘greater good’ over personal achievements, creating the perfect environment to launch new projects and inspire innovative ideas. This kind of active and open-minded participation, where experts from different backgrounds come to “play,” is what can help connect academia and industry and close the distance between theory and practice.
Ben Curtis is an FHE researcher at Zama. He was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Alan Turing Institute in London and received a doctorate in cryptography from Royal Holloway University of London in 2020
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