Yeah, joint venture arrangements are pretty common especially in Tech and Pharma, but you'll find lots of different models. For instance, some companies will sponsor a professorship or lectureship, sometimes there's access to commercially sensitive, cutting edge research and know how. Sometimes it's secondments from industry to academia and/or vice versa. Sometimes it's graduate student placements. Whatever works, I suppose. But most colleges are keen for their academic staff to get their hands dirty in the real world!