Research on university – industry collaboration ideologies, operations and activities for improvement of effective cooperation in industry 4.0 era. Utilizing over 65 years of experience on effective collaboration, inc. advisory notes, experiences, proven models, industry case studies and collaborators' recommendations for rich, long and successful partnerships. A five step model for cooperation is proposed: goal setting, key stakeholder analysis, legal framework definition for interaction, best practice experience analysis, and goal readjustment. Model facilitates effective interactions to achieve the set goals by adequately focusing on main issues. We contribute to the proper collaboration approaches discussions, allowing good outcome UIC. Academics and practitioners should seek specific signs, activities & outputs to avoid near term challenges in changing world. Virtual environments and metaverse collaboration are suggested to be considered as next level UIC platforms and future research is in need of extended range of interactions and novel new long-term cooperation model studies.