A consortium is an organization of two or more companies, individuals, or institutions with a shared purpose to achieve a common goal. Examples of this type of group include a government that brings together private companies to negotiate better rates on airplane travel, a company that develops new technologies for the pharmaceutical industry, or an organization that organizes research consortia to help universities study specific issues and problems.
The benefits of consortium
A common benefit of a consortium is that it allows two or more businesses to combine their skills and experience when developing and delivering a tender. This can be particularly useful for small businesses, which often lack the resources to complete large projects on their own.
However, there are also some disadvantages to a consortium approach. For example, it may be more expensive to develop and deliver a consortium tender than it would be for an individual business.
Similarly, the amount of time it takes to develop and deliver a consortium tender may be a barrier for some businesses. A company that is interested in forming a consortium to bid on a tender will need to have a lot of time to plan the project and identify possible partners.
Other challenges were related to the disciplinary boundaries of RCS activities (as outlined in 'Research capacity'). A significant challenge, especially for early career researchers, was that consortium fellowships were often recruited from core faculty at member institutes but retained their institutional positions throughout their training and into their postdoctoral careers.