Academia-industry relationships (AIRs) gain significance for cooperation partners as well as for whole knowledge-based economies, and play an overproportionate role in the life sciences. Currently, universities resort to alternative sponsors due to cutbacks in public funding, industry utilizes the expertise and infrastructure of academia for R&D outsourcing, and governments encourage knowledge transfer activities which provide competitive advantage to national economies. However, AIRs often cannot reach their full potential: They are initiated on an accidental basis, and attitudinal differences based on different professional cultures complicate AIR management. Organizational models of AIRs postulate that cooperation partners can initiate beneficial transformations in the other. This study assessed concepts, experiences and opinions of experts from academia and industry to generate recommendations for academic institutions to optimize AIRs. Qualitative expert interviews (n=10) showed that a) personal contacts determine AIR initiation, b) cultural problems complicate AIR management and c) cooperation partners may reciprocally induce beneficial adaptations in one another. It is thus recommended to academic institutions to systematically build up contacts with industry, optimize structures and procedures to permit interaction that lead to a co-evolution of the partners. Thus, AIRs may be optimized to serve the needs of the individual institution and contribute to translational research and economic development.