Connecting Companies with Researchers Who Can Help Solve Their Toughest R&D Challenges.
From R&D strategy and partner selection to faculty funding workshops and scientist career programs, TurningScience helps companies and research organizations work together more effectively.
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Our Mission
TurningScience brings companies and research organizations together around problems worth solving. Companies gain the capabilities needed to improve products, strengthen margins, and protect their competitive advantage, while universities gain industry funding, stronger research programs, and clearer paths for science to solve problems that benefit society.
25+ Years: Industry and Research
David Giltner has led industry R&D, hired and managed PhD scientists, earned 7 patents, and delivered more than 200 workshops across 60+ institutions. That experience gives TurningScience a practical understanding of what companies need, how researchers work, and what makes industry–research partnerships valuable on both sides.
Why Us
Companies need research tied to a clear product, technology, performance, cost, margin, or market priority. Researchers need a defined problem, useful evidence, clear responsibilities, and a project a company is prepared to fund. TurningScience helps both sides establish those expectations before significant time or budget is committed.
How TurningScience Helps
Build Better Products. Improve Margins. Stay
Ahead.
Focus your R&D investment on the right development priorities and access the external expertise, facilities, and research capacity needed to improve products, reduce costs, enter new markets, and protect your competitive advantage.
Grow Your Research. Expand Its Impact.
We work with faculty to build fundable industry relationships that grow laboratories and move science into practical use, while preparing PhD students and postdocs to communicate their value and build careers in industry.
First-hand experience leading R&D, managing scientists, and building research partnerships.
Scientific and technical work turned into protected applications with practical value.
Practical programs delivered for scientists, researchers, and institutional leaders.
Universities and research organizations served across four continents.
What makes us different
R&D Linked to Products, Margins, and Competitive Advantage
Every company engagement begins with the product, performance, cost, margin, market, or competitive result the research must support.
Research Programs Linked to Funding, Growth, and Impact
Every institutional program helps researchers turn expertise into stronger industry relationships, fundable work, laboratory growth, or greater applied impact.
Access to Partners Beyond Your Existing Network
David’s global relationships help companies look beyond familiar institutions and help research organizations connect their expertise with industry demand.
Research Partners Ready to Solve Industry Problems
TurningScience assesses technical expertise, facilities, capacity, timing, responsiveness, working style, and whether the research team is as motivated to deliver an industry solution as it is to publish strong science.
Lessons From Successful and Failed Research Partnerships
TurningScience has studied why partnerships create value, stall, fail, or become a burden and uses those lessons to prevent avoidable problems.
Clear Recommendations and Next Steps
This work is built around decisions your in house team cannot answer alone. You leave with the evidence, recommendation, project plan, or next step needed to move tech products forward.
Clear Comms Between Business Leaders and Scientists
David helps business leaders define the result the company needs and helps scientists translate complex technical work into evidence, tradeoffs, and decisions both sides can act on - and benefit from.
What our Workshop Participants Say
Trusted by both scientists and university leadership for delivering beginner-to-advanced training programs for career-transforming outcomes.
Attending the 'How to Be More Employable in the Private Sector' workshop was an exceptional opportunity that provided me with a new perspective on my career and increased my confidence. I'm grateful for Dr. David Giltner's invaluable insights, feedback, and captivating stories that helped me gain a deeper understanding of what it takes to succeed in the private sector.’
‘David delivered an engaging and thought-provoking keynote that brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our event, It was a delight to see the doctoral students in attendance with big smiles on their faces, clearly indicating their satisfaction. There are many people who give career development guidance, but David has the first-hand experience required to give a genuine view of what a private sector career is really like!’
Scientists equipped to communicate their value, work with industry, and make stronger career and partnership decisions.
Companies, universities, research organizations, and scientific communities reached through TurningScience’s work.
International experience across different research, funding, and industry environments.
Practical guidance for scientists, research leaders, and organizations working across industry and academia.
Practical Ideas for Working Across Industry and Research
It’s a Game, Not a Formula
A practical guide to succeeding as a scientist in industry, where valuable decisions matter more than finding one perfect answer.
Shaping the World
Twenty-nine scientists share how they built careers working in or with industry and created impact beyond traditional academic paths.
Turning Science Into Things People Need
Lessons from scientists who have turned technical expertise into products, capabilities, and real-world value.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who hires TurningScience?
TurningScience works with established science and technology companies, universities, research organizations, departments, laboratories, and scientific societies. Organizations hire David; faculty, researchers, PhD students, postdocs, and technical leaders may participate in the resulting work.
How does TurningScience help companies?
TurningScience helps your company focus R&D investment, close capabilities missing from your product and technology roadmap, and build research partnerships around clear business priorities. The work supports better products, stronger margins, new markets, and a longer-lasting competitive advantage.
How does TurningScience help universities?
TurningScience helps your researchers turn scientific expertise into fundable company projects and industry relationships that last. Programs are designed to grow industry funding, strengthen research programs and laboratories, expand real-world impact, and prepare scientists for industry.
What services does TurningScience provide?
Companies can engage TurningScience to review R&D opportunities, choose a technical direction, find and assess research partners, and structure the first project and working relationship. Universities and research organizations can commission workshops, keynotes, and cohort programs for faculty, researchers, PhD students, or postdocs—in person or online.
We already have research partners or an industry-engagement team. Can TurningScience still help?
Yes. For companies, David can evaluate whether existing projects and partnerships still support the roadmap, identify missing capabilities, and improve how partners are selected and managed. For research organizations, he works alongside research-development and industry-engagement teams by preparing researchers to identify company problems, shape fundable projects, and sustain stronger relationships.
Does David need to be an expert in our exact scientific field?
No. David works with your technical experts rather than replacing them; his role is to connect the business or institutional objective to the scientific work, partner criteria, project structure, and next decision. Programs can be adapted to the discipline while preserving the partnership principles that apply across scientific fields.
How do you measure success when the outcome cannot be guaranteed?
Scientific results, product outcomes, and funding awards cannot be guaranteed. Company projects are built around targeted feasibility work, milestones, and evidence that supports the next investment decision—not open-ended “we’ll see” research—while institutional programs can track participant action plans, qualified industry conversations, project concepts, and follow-up milestones.
Better Products. Stronger Research. Greater Impact.
Whether you need to protect a competitive advantage, improve margins, grow industry-funded research, expand your institution’s impact, or prepare scientists for industry, TurningScience can help.
Apply To Work With Us
Tell us about the product, margin, competitive, research-funding, impact, or scientist-development
result your organization wants to achieve.
