Jonathan Kestenbaum introduces:
Report ‘goes with the grain’ of all our concerns in how to connect Universities. Nesta is an independent endowment - and it helps coordinate the flows of capital and expertise. Need to assemble evidence base to inform public policy on innovation and demonstrate best practice.
Need to be a guiding force behind innovation clusters. The Universities need to be at the heart of the process and the debate.
Lord Sainsbury
I tried to behave like a politician - but they are a different race!
The report draws attention to a British success story of our Universities over the past 10 years. We don’t make enough of this in the UK. In October 2007 - I published ‘The Race to the Top’ - challenge is to create a dynamic knowledge economy - universities have a key role to play.
Our universities are in an excellent position especially in knowledge transfer - we are on a par with the US now. One metric is amount of venture capital going into Universities - we now do as well as the US. It’s a success story.
But it’s not just about ‘spin-outs’ it’s also about ‘spin-ins’ from companies both UK and overseas and new research institutes. It’s also about physical presence and the infrastructure. It’s not a ‘flat world’ it’s a ‘spiky world’ where innovation clusters are important. Government should support these and the Government and the RDAs need to build on success.
Universities have a major economic impact on their surroundings. Not surprising - look at the US.
Three important things
1) Scope for technical or business Universities to interact and link with SMEs - but not all Universities should have same mission - there will be 30 who do ‘world-class’ research. Others should not compete but differentiate themselves.
Science and innovation campuses - such as RAL, Daresbury. Clusters of real expertise and these places can provide tremendous opportunites but needs government drive to succeed.
FE colleges are important but neglected. Government and RDAs need to focus on this. Need Further Education Innovation fund (like HEIF).
We can’t predict which sectors new businesses will come from but we can predict that they will come from the high-tech clusters surrounding our Universities.
Michael Kitson - Judge Institute - responds
Firms move. Universities do not - this makes them economically important to their regions. Conventional metrics fail to capture the richness of interactions between Universities and businesses. Knowledge exchange is not limited to High Tech - lots happening in Social Sciences.
The role of the University varies regionally and they need to be aligned with their surroundings (can’t all be Cambridge or MAnchester).
Need the role of ‘intermediaries’ to be the interface between Universities and businesses - boundary spanning.
Hermann Hauser - Amadeus
Appreciates Sainsbury’s contribution as Science Minister.
Innovation model has changed on a grand scale. Think about the ethos of Bell Labs - not always fast enough to get to commercial reality but great at tech and ideas. Invented mobile phones but failed to exploit them.
Innovation has become distributed around the world. The league tables show that we ‘punch above our weight’. But our institutions are very separate. Venture capital is one valid commercialisation route.
We have about 1,000 companies - many of them are not ‘spin-outs’ - they are ‘sneak outs’. Most valuable products of our labs are the people they produce not the patents.
The problem is many of these new businesses are not profitable - they can’t get debt so can only find equity. But everybody has moved away from these risky investments.
Now focusing on Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells. George Bush helpful to UK in this. Doesn’t need large-scale manufacture but it’s very hard to do. There is the chance to keep the whole ‘value stack’ in the UK. This is a big opportunity. We can automate the manufacturing process.
Questions, comments and discussion
John Goddard - reflect on impact on teaching and learning.
Eric Thomas - University of Bristol. Not recession proof. Obama is investing. It will get tighter. How do we best ensure that we continue to invest? Need to sustain investment.
Keith Homan - business exchange study. Regional embededness is one thing. But what about international opportunities.
Sainsbury - all need to be good at teaching, research and knowledge transfer.
MK - sometimes distinction is artificial - everything is strengthened by interaction.
HH - Bristol is doing well, we have 2 investments there. Fundamental breakthrough. Ven Capital cannot provide sustainable investment. Government cutting back. There’s still philanthropy - individuals are prepared to come forward - philanthropic venturing. Provide resource and get a return.
Sainsbury - I met the Technical Director from Nokia; got a lot of money from the Finnish Government for Science Budget in 1990s - he said “You have a real problem - we can find the solution through investment in technology - that’s what we persuaded them to do”.
Local cluster interaction with other local cluster across the world is very important - Science Bridges - initially US but now India and China. Southampton example of link with San Diego. Needs to be University to University rather than individual researcher to individual reseacher.
MK - re services. Yes, there’s a lot of it going on. Service innovation important. Small firms find it difficult to interact with Universities. Many of them would benefit from this. Needs boundary spanning function.
Sainsbury - need to reinforce role of university - early stage may not make massive money but important to do. Some contribution to funds may be needed. For years industry has said they want Universities to be more commercial - but when they do industry does not want to pay.
HH - recalls Alvey report. Look at Korea and their semiconductor industry. Benefited from sector targeted support not picking national champions. Sector support vital. Industrial activism tricky but important.
Dewey Goodman - if the recession is a V notch how do we connect with medium enterprises to raise their game in the recession. Over 80% of
Ian Wilcock - early stage tech transfer - objectives for tech transfer. What is the real purpose of Tech Transfer - benefit to the economy or to the individual institution? Needs to be clear.
Vivienne Stern - Industrial activism. Comment on the intention to focus on ‘predicted areas of growth’
Sainsbury - ‘Picking winners is usually a disaster - turns into subsidisng losers’. But we do need some focus areas for targeted investment. Need to see where technology is changing and look for opportunities.
