Taking care of business: a dark day or
new dawn?
HUMANE Conference,
Stockholm, June 2011
Ian Creagh
Head of Administration & College Secretary
Universities, innovation & HEIF
in particular
• Universities and innovation: recent background
and policy context
• Issues surrounding the Russell Group and its
innovation and research performance
• Some King’s specific issues and challenges
• Challenges, issues, internal and external
2
HEIs and innovation – the policy
subtext
• Universities not particularly well managed
• NOT sufficiently focussed on meeting business
needs
• A pre-disposition towards US solutions/methods
• Lambert’s 2003 Review changed the tone and
tenor of the debate
3
Lambert Review -- 2003
“The biggest challenge identified by this Review lies on the
demand side….
“There has been a marked culture change in the UK’s
universities….
“…most of them are actively seeking to play a broader role
in the national and regional economy….
“Compared with HE institutions in other European countries,
British universities have made real progress in their efforts to
work with business.”
4
Key outcomes -- Lambert
• People networks
• Innovation process is non-linear
• Calculation of economic returns to academic research is
fuzzy, but evidence of public good is persuasive
• Research concentration rather than diffusion
• Tech t’fer: not the goose that will lay the golden income
egg for institutions
• Business should have a greater say
• 3rd stream funding: should be permanent feature of HE
funding; formuliac allocation
5
Sainsbury Review 2007
….innovation ecosystems
“Both new and established high-technology companies want to
work with world-class research universities….
“Private firms alone, in seeking to maximise their returns, will
undertake less research than is socially optimal…
“Although research is of great importance to any innovation
ecosystem, little is to be gained from research in universities…if
there are not strong links between the researchers and industry,
and that is why knowledge transfer, and incentives for it, are so
important.”
6
Transition from Tech Transfer
to Knowledge Exchange
Where we have come from…
Where we are going to…
STEM focus
All disciplines
Simple ‘transmission’ model of knowledge
Dynamic exchange model
Wealth creation
Innovation, productivity, quality of
life, cultural enrichment, civic dev,
community regeneration etc.
Large, multi-national businesses
Spectrum from global to local/
regional and all users
7
B&C interaction or ‘third
stream’: Scope
BUSINESS
PRIVATE
SECTOR
PUBLIC
SECTOR
Competitiveness, Efficiency,
Growth
Cohesion
8
COMMUNITY
CULTURAL
LANDSCAPE
Cultural
Enrichment &
Quality of Life
SOCIAL & CIVIC
ARENA
Resources &
Opportunities
Evolution of 3rd stream
funding
Sustainable Strategy
IMPACT
OUTCOME
OUTPUT
CAPACITY
CAPABILITY
CULTURE
Refresh, refine and review
HEIs - and their activities - will be at different
stages on this trajectory…...
9
RG: evidence of successful
business interaction
RG institutions comprise 12% of all HEIs, but in 2003/4, were:
10
•
79% of HEIs whose contract research with SMEs was >
£1m
•
65% of HEIs whose contract research with non-SMEs was
> £3m
•
85% of HEIs whose contract research with non-SMEs was
> £5m
•
60% of HEIs who had set up 3 or more business spin-offs
with some HEI ownership
Industry research performance
Institutional ranking of HEIs, England:
research income, 2005/06
Research funding category
Rank Total
research
income
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Oxford
Imperial
Cambridge
UCL
Manchester
King’s
Southampton
Sheffield
Birmingham
Leeds
UK industry, QR grants
commerce,
(06/07)
pub. corps.
Imperial
Cambridge
King’s
Oxford
Manchester
Leeds
UCL
Birmingham
Bristol
Southampton
Cambridge
Oxford
UCL
Imperial
Manchester
King’s
Leeds
Southampton
Sheffield
Bristol
Research and innovation
management at KCL
King's Business, 2007/08
Function
12
Total
Total
HEIF
Total HEIF
support
FTE FTE £'000s
£'000s
HEIF
support
%
Research Support
Clinical Trials Office
Business Development
Knowledge transfer
KB Management
Consultancy unit
24
19
14
7
4
1
0
0
14
2
1
1
1,164
680
1,295
838
426
70
0
0
1,295
174
37
70
0.00%
0.00%
100.00%
20.76%
8.69%
100.00%
Total
69
18
4,473
1,576
35.23%
With maturing capability, innovation
objectives have sharpened
13
•
Undoubted early focus on income from business for
collaborative research, commercial clinical trials and
consultancy
•
BUT, income alone is not the point. KT/KE positioned as nonlinear & dynamic process leading to varied benefits
•
All about layered business partnership: to create, share, apply
and translate research to achieve a social & economic impact
•
Successful creation of King’s Health Partners: a major priority
of the translational research and innovation agenda
Target sectors
• Greater London predominates, but also multinational
• Pharmaceuticals sector is of particular importance
• Social sciences and public policy footprint is also
large – has led to some intriguing interactions and
commercialisation activities
• Creative and cultural sector – South Bank cultural
quarter, Globe Theatre, British Library, British
Museum, King’s Cross
• Often highly multi-disciplinary in character
14
Critical partners/friends/contributors
• London Development Agency
• Larger bio-medical charities
• Departments of Culture, Media and Sport;
& Innovation, Universities and Skills
• King’s Health Partners Hospital Trusts
15
Successes: HEIF supported
spin-outs
16
•
Osspray
•
Ixico
•
Simulstrat
•
Proximagen
•
Lidco
•
Medpharm
•
LCACE
http://www.osspray.com/
http://www.ixico.com/index.php
http://www.simulstrat.com/
http://www.proximagen.com/default.shtml
http://lidco-ir.co.uk/
http://www.medpharm.co.uk/
http://www.lcace.org.uk/home.php
Innovation agenda: institutional
challenges and tensions
•
•
•
•
•
•
17
HEIF both in terms of purpose and design is SME focussed
…and King’s research impact dominated by bio-medical
science
Natural partners -- pharmaceutical sector; transnational
rather than regional in character
Access has to be achieved at the most senior levels
Also requires subtle partnerships with others, when ferocious
competition is the norm!
Global Medical Excellence Cluster initiative may assist to
overcome and Francis Crick Centre
Scale and competence of KT/KE
experts still needs to grow
18
•
Demand outstrips capacity to supply embedded KT
expertise by an order of magnitude
•
Expectations increasing esp. with the advent of the
translational research agenda and the King’s Academic
Health Sciences Centre
•
Not quite as acute in relation to the creative and cultural &
public policy sectors
•
In part this is the case because of residual cultural
resistance to or suspicion of engagement with business
In conclusion
•
•
•
•
•
•
19
HEIF -- an important and welcome (but relatively small)
funding stream for research intensive institutions such as
King’s
Has evolved on the back of a consensus among policy elites
& business lobby groups concerning the positive role of
universities in a modern economy
Has assisted with KT/KE institutional capacity building
Seeded collaboration between HEIs in the interests of
business
Raised the profile, importance and benefits to most research
active academics of KT/KE
Opportunity costs with Teaching but especially Research