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New Research Centre to give UK the innovation advantage
4 December 2008
The at , and are setting up a new collaborative venture – the UK Innovation Research Centre (UK~IRC). The Centre will receive £2.8 million over the next five years to carry out the highest quality research into how innovation can make businesses more competitive, improve public services delivery and help the UK meet the social, environmental and economic challenges it faces.
The Centre is being set up in response to The Government’s White Paper (March 2008) and jointly funded by four partners: the ; ; the ; and the .
, director of the UK Innovation Research Centre and director of the Centre for Business Research, explains the context for the initiative: “Innovation is much more broadly defined than it used to be. It’s not just about successfully introducing new products; innovation in services, processes, even in business models and ways of working is increasingly important. We need new research so that both practitioners and policymakers can understand the key issues in all these forms of innovation - particularly when current global economic conditions make it more important than ever to ensure that the UK’s innovative capacity is enhanced.”
The Centre builds on the proven track record of expertise in the two partner organisations. In addition to their research, members of both institutions are involved in developing business practice and policy advice in the fields of innovation and knowledge exchange at national and international levels - for example, contributing to the UK Innovation and Productivity Grand Challenge and the recent Australian National Innovation Review. The Centre brings together a critical mass of leading scholars in the field.
The Centre will ensure that new research on innovation in both the public and private sectors has the greatest effect on policy and practice. , director of research at the UK IRC and reader in innovation management at , outlines the research agenda, which is due to begin in January:
“The UK Innovation Research Centre will explore the relationship between innovation and business performance and how this affects the national economy and the individual organisation. This will feed directly into both innovation policy and practice, for example in helping to open companies up to new forms of collaboration and policy makers to develop new instruments and strategies to promote innovation and knowledge exchange. ”
In addition to building research capabilities, the UK Innovation Research Centre will also actively disseminate its work through a ‘Knowledge Exchange Hub’. , Hub Director and university senior lecturer in international macroeconomics at Judge Business School, says: “We want to ensure that our research agenda can effectively respond to the needs of the business and policy communities, and we will develop knowledge exchange activities ranging from seminars to Innovation Podcasts to ensure our research has a significant impact on both policy and practice.”
Background
The Centre is being set up in response to The Government’s ‘Innovation Nation’ White Paper (March 2008). This laid out the Government’s intention to “build on the UK’s current impressive performance on research and broaden the traditional knowledge exchange agenda to encompass new disciplines, new sectors, new businesses and those who work in the development and delivery of public services.”
The paper can be found at: www.dius.gov.uk/publications/ScienceInnovation.pdf
About The Centre for Business Research at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge
The CBR, co-located within Judge Business School, is an independent research institution within the University of Cambridge. Its research spans the University departments of Geography, Economics, Land Economy, Social and Political Sciences, Physics and Engineering. The CBR has been recognised by independent peer review both as an international centre of excellence in innovation and enterprise research, and for the practical impact of its research on policy and practice. It has raised over £20 million of funding to support its research activities. The co-location of the CBR within Judge Business School situates it in the most vibrant entrepreneurial community in Europe containing both locally-born high-tech businesses and the subsidiaries of leading multinationals. www.cbr.cam.ac.uk Judge Business School itself is internationally recognised as one of the leading providers of innovative, intellectually challenging and practical business management education across a portfolio of undergraduate, graduate and executive programmes. As a fully integrated department of a world renowned university, Judge Business School hosts one of the largest concentrations of interdisciplinary business and management research activity in Europe. www.jbs.cam.ac.uk
About Imperial College Business School
Imperial College Business School is a world-class provider of business education and research, focusing primarily on Imperial College’s well-established strengths. The School possesses recognised, international expertise in three specialist areas: finance; innovation and entrepreneurship and healthcare management. It has the largest single group of academics working on innovation in Europe.
It is the only European School to have appeared in the Financial Times’ “Best in Entrepreneurship’ table, every year since the assessment began. The School's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group is one of the leading research groups of its kind in Europe, having received over £25m in funding from governmental and corporate sponsors.
www.imperial.ac.uk/business-school
The UK’s next step towards an Innovation Nation
From Stonehenge to Dyson, the UK is a nation founded on innovation. From NHS Direct to supermarkets selling insurance, it is a nation with a great imagination and entrepreneurial spirit.
The announcement today (4 December 2008) of a new £5m Innovation Research Centre, to be jointly hosted by the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, will ensure the UK’s strength’s in innovation and entrepreneurship continue.
The new centre is funded by the Department for Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and the Technology Strategy Board (TSB).
Lord Drayson, Minister for Science and Innovation, said: “Innovation provides the answer to many of the biggest challenges facing the UK today. This new Innovation Research Centre will help government and the private sector to develop effective innovation policy and implement it well. A crucial tool in the fight against the economic downturn.
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Ian Diamond, Chief executive of the ESRC, added, '”In challenging economic conditions, understanding and promoting innovation becomes ever more important to our economic performance. This initiative from the ESRC and our partners could not be more timely, and I am delighted to see the centre placed with such a distinguished team at Cambridge and Imperial. The centre's work will be developed in close collaboration with stakeholders from the public and private sectors, giving a perfect opportunity to capitalise on the UK's leading position in scientific research and strongly complement the measures that the government are putting in place under Innovation Nation.
Jonathan Kestenbaum, Chief Executive of NESTA said, “Innovation is essential to the UK’s ability to meet the economic and social challenges of the 21st century. Good policy is built on outstanding research. The UK is a strong performer on innovation across all sectors of its economy, but the Innovation Research Centre will ensure that our country has the understanding it needs to stay ahead over the coming decades.’
Commenting on the Technology Strategy Board's support, its Chief Executive, Iain Gray, said: "This unique collaboration between two leading institutions will provide a centre of excellence for innovation research. The Centre will be an extremely valuable resource for the Technology Strategy Board. We will work closely with it and we strongly encourage businesses to engage with it too. The Centre will help to enhance our understanding of innovation and will contribute to the UK maintaining its competitive edge – which is now more important than ever."
The Centre will officially commence work in January 2009. The collaboration will define innovation is its broadest sense, and will engage with policy and practitioner communities. It will ensure the maximum impact of new knowledge on policy and practice and develop capacity, in terms of people, data and methods for future research and knowledge exchange.
The announcement of the new Centre coincides with DIUS releasing the Annual Innovation Report today, the first ever report of its kind to be published by a national government. The report gives a comprehensive overview of the UK’s innovation performance across the private and public sectors.
Ends
Press Office Contacts:
ESRC:
Kelly Barnett Tel: 01793 413032
Danielle Moore Tel: 01793 413122
DIUS:
Rhys Stacker Tel: 0203 300 8105
NESTA:
Michael Stephenson Tel: 020 7438 2600
Notes to Editors:
1. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It supports independent, high quality research which impacts on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC’s planned total expenditure in 2008/09 is £203 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and research policy institutes. More at www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk
2. NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts. Its mission is to transform the UK’s capacity for innovation. With the largest portfolio of early-stage businesses in the country, it is a leading authority on how to grow new ideas. We also stimulate imaginative solutions to pressing social issues and shape policy to help the UK meet its national innovation challenges. www.nesta.org.uk
3. The Department for Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS) was created by the Prime Minister on 28 June 2007 to provide a coherent and effective Government voice on investment in research, science and skills at all levels. The department brings together the nation’s strengths in all these areas through our universities and colleges to build the UK a dynamic, knowledge-based economy for the 21st century. Britain can only succeed in a rapidly changing world if we develop the skills of our people to the fullest possible extent, carry out world class research and scholarship, and apply both knowledge and skills to create an innovative and competitive economy.
4. DIUS will contribute £1.25 million over a period of five years to the Innovation Research Centre. The DIUS contribution will be matched by each of the three other funders, making a total of £5 million over five years.
5. DIUS’s Annual Innovation Report was published today. It can be found at www.dius.gov.uk/policy/annual_innovation_report.html
6. The Centre for Business Research at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge is co-located within Judge Business School, is an independent research institution within the University of Cambridge. Its research spans the University departments of Geography, Economics, Land Economy, Social and Political Sciences, Physics and Engineering. The CBR has been recognised by independent peer review both as an international centre of excellence in innovation and enterprise research, and for the practical impact of its research on policy and practice. It has raised over £20 million of funding to support its research activities. The co-location of the CBR within Judge Business School situates it in the most vibrant entrepreneurial community in Europe containing both locally-born high-tech businesses and the subsidiaries of leading multinationals. www.cbr.cam.ac.uk Judge Business School itself is internationally recognised as one of the leading providers of innovative, intellectually challenging and practical business management education across a portfolio of undergraduate, graduate and executive programmes. As a fully integrated department of a world renowned university, Judge Business School hosts one of the largest concentrations of interdisciplinary business and management research activity in Europe. www.jbs.cam.ac.uk
7. Imperial College Business School is a world-class provider of business education and research, focusing primarily on Imperial College’s well-established strengths. The School possesses recognised, international expertise in three specialist areas: finance; innovation and entrepreneurship and healthcare management. It has the largest single group of academics working on innovation in Europe. It is the only European School to have appeared in the Financial Times’ “Best in Entrepreneurship’ table, every year since the assessment began. The School's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group is one of the leading research groups of its kind in Europe, having received over £25m in funding from governmental and corporate sponsors.
www.imperial.ac.uk/business-school
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