Luke Georghiou

Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor

University of Manchester

Universities as Core Partners in Realising the Industrial Strategy

Universities provide golden thread through Industrial Strategy

• Strong identity with place

• Research powerhouses attracting & leveraging private investment

• Pipeline for talent to raise productivity

• Founding and supporting growing businesses

• Conduit to global networks and markets

• Expertise in key sectors energy infrastructure etc

But…chorus of disapproval combined with climate of expectation surrounds universities

Demonstrated contribution to UK economy and society but

• Impact not reaching all sectors of the economy and society or at least not visible to them

• Risk of anecdote over evidence

• High presence in UK’s R&D profile 26% cfOECD average 18% extends expectation to include clear role in innovation

• Reinforced by formation of UKRI and enhanced role of impact in REF

• Multiple missions, limited resources especially time

Interdependency: Building an Innovation Ecosystem

Source: L.Georghiou cited in House of Commons Select Committee on Science & Technology Report Bridging the valley of

death: improving the commercialisation of Research, March 2013

• People– Having the right skills and talents, entrepreneurship and enterprise

capability, critical mass in labour markets for creative people, cross-sectoral mobility

• Finance– Investment in research, support from banks for growth companies, seed

capital, venture funding, enabling investment in infrastructure (physical and intangible)

• Services– Infrastructure and associated services for innovation including

incubators, science parks, facilities/equipment, digital connectivity, business support, access to equipment for testing etc.

• Knowledge– Formal and informal flow of ideas, IPR and opportunities created and co-

created by actors in the system

Linking it together – four key flows in the innovation ecosystem

Most important elements of the innovation ecosystem according to 698 businesses in 11 European countries including 93 in UK

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

knowledgeflows

mobility ofpeople

financialsupport

services Other

Agri-food Biopharma Clean technologies ICT Manufacturing

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 64935. The European Commission has no liability in respect for the above contents.

Importance of stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Other infrastructure

Finance

Regulators

Suppliers

Customers

Public research bodies

Percentage of firms

Stak

eh

old

ers

“Our eco-system really is our customer base I think. Then it is the providers of staff to us, if the universities are doing good research then they are then training people we need to take.”

Nature and

scale of

knowledge

exchange

mechanisms

between

academics

and external

organisations

Uninterrupted Growth: UK HE-BCI Income 2003-15 (£Ms Real Terms)

A UK strength: international comparisons

But fallen back from peak ranking of 2nd in WEF Global Competitiveness Report for university-industry collaboration in R&D to 6th place

Motivations

• Access to funding from industry

• To provide an outlet for research results

• To promote entrepreneurship and secure employment for graduates

• To access complementary expertise

• To access state-of-the art equipment

• To contribute to regional and/or national economy

• Secure supply of recruits

• Access to scarce scientific expertise

• Access to exploitable intellectual property

• Enhancing the scope & testing of in-house corporate activities

• Scanning and entry to “invisible college”

• Cost saving through outsourcing

For universities to work with business

For business to work with universities

Barriers to collaboration

• Different objectives for research– Corporate volatility in objectives

– Concerns for academic freedom

• Different timescales

• Legal or structural barriers

• Career incentive structures not favourable

• Tension between imperative to publish and IPR requirements

• Interface problems in identifying partners and negotiating terms

• Tension between vocational and educational objectives

• Differing expectations on price/cost

Getting it right in business engagement

• Rests on ability to configure interdisciplinary teams around key challenges for partners

• No compromise on excellence– Partners clear: “we do not want universities to be second rate

corporate R&D labs”

• Large firm strategy based on strategic partnerships which extend scope and scale of collaborations, allow sharing of strategic information and substantially reduce transaction costs

• SME strategy often people-focused with KTPs and internships a core element

• Transaction costs may be addressed by working with associations and supply chains

Sharing best practice

• McMillan Group review of technology transfer1 showed need for TT policies to be sensitive to local entrepreneurial conditions

• But also addressed the existence of an effectiveness gradient in TT practice

• Resonant phrase picked up by Select Committee, Government Response and UKRI– “The lack of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to successful technology

transfer does not preclude the sharing of best practice”

• Also stressed need for university senior management to provide clear statements of purpose and approach– But that must be mirrored in career incentives and everyday practice

1. Published HEFCE September 2016

Challenges and Opportunities

• Challenge and Partnerships are the key words in R&I policy – Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund will demand both excellence

and state-of-the-art business engagement from Universities

• UK Innovation Ecosystem has universities at its heart– Need to make the case again & again & again for the value of

research and the positive state of knowledge exchange in the UK

• What is good must still be better if we are to realise the Industrial Strategy– As with productivity we need to raise the average towards the best

– Attention in ecosystem flows to inputs as well as outputs

– We risk hollowing out capability through cumulative demands for matching funds – QR critical to sustainable capacity to engage