Business-science collaboration is essential for fostering innovation and economic development, particularly in rapidly evolving sectors like AI and Energy Efficiency and Sustainability. We study how to enhance the collaboration between firms and scientists given persistent barriers such as information frictions, behavioral biases, and high transaction costs. To address existing challenges, the research investigates the potential of matchmaking interventions. Specifically, it evaluates the SCINERGY '24 Pilot in Croatia, designed to match firms with scientists possessing relevant expertise and provide comprehensive support throughout their collaborative endeavors. Matchmakers facilitate meetings, offer guidance, and assist in knowledge transfer on topics such as IP regulations and partnership agreements. Collaborative projects between matched pairs of scientists and businesses are undertaken during the matchmaking phase. 100 firms are randomly selected for support and 110 are in the control group. The difference in performance of the two groups of firms over time will be investigated by capturing differences in collaboration rates/ fields/ quality of collaboration, innovation outcomes, and firm growth. The study shall help improving the understanding of factors driving successful business-science partnerships. It shall offer causal and descriptive insights on the potential of interventions that enhance collaboration in academia and industry and through that on their potential to foster innovation and economic development, while also discerning differential effects for different firm types (e.g., w/o prior experience in collaborating with academia or w/o clear research support needs).