Industry and Higher Education

This special issue of Industry and Higher Education is devoted to a selection of papers and reports from TTI 2000, an international conference on technology transfer and innovation held at the Commonwealth Institute, London in July 2000. In this introductory paper, the author provides the context of the conference, summarizes presentations given by invited speakers and offers personal reflections on the event.

The UK's development as a knowledge-driven economy has become a ‘given’. There are, however, differences of view about what such an economy comprises, and there is some risk that human factors will be neglected as government and business both revel in the excitement of technological change and struggle to keep pace with it. For a gifted science graduate or a born entrepreneur, the opportunities may be limitless. For the one in five people considered functionally illiterate, opportunities are closing down rapidly. But the knowledge economy will not succeed without people, and as the workforce ages employers will be faced with new challenges. It has been clear for some time that the new economy will have an enormous impact on work – indeed this has already started to happen – and that the impact will not be uniform. This paper examines some of the implications of these changes for individuals, business and government, from shifts in the pattern of work and attitudes to work, to the impact on the vast national infrastructures that support working life.

This paper first addresses the need for innovation as a key factor in business success and longevity. It then challenges the received wisdom that all innovation comes from smaller companies and that large companies are incapable of innovating. Presenting evidence to the contrary, and stressing the importance to large businesses of developing an innovative culture, the author describes some of the more successful ways that larger companies have found to foster innovation – these include the ‘10%’ rule, the ‘lead user’ concept, and paying for innovative ideas. In addition, he reports on the effective development and use of the ‘Minority Report’ at Motorola and notes some of the obstacles that other companies have experienced in attempting to adopt this practice. The author concludes with thoughts on ways to facilitate technology transfer to large companies, stressing that obstacles can be created by the attitudes of inventors as well as by company cultures, and that transfer can be facilitated by a better understanding on both sides of the problems and issues involved.

Are small high-technology firms more important to economic growth and wealth creation than has generally been recognized? Will their importance continue to increase? The author's answers are yes. Technology change, innovation and breakthroughs will continue to become more important. Attracting enormous amounts of very high risk capital is key to success. Small high-technology firms have unique advantages, including raising capital through the possibility of exponential appreciation of the value of their stock. The need is for initial financing to determine the technical feasibility of ‘too high risk’ ideas and reduce the risk to levels acceptable to private investors. The $1.2 billion US Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program is designed to do that. It has recently been renewed until 2008.

The paper draws on a series of case studies of innovation in optoelectronics firms in Wales and the German state of Thuringia, in order to highlight the role of industry clusters in technology transfer and innovation. It begins by analysing relevant features of the industry at the national and regional levels, with the influence of policy on the development of the sector. It then uses data from fourteen cases to show how the focus of innovation and the needs of firms differ in the two regions. From this, a general model is constructed, to show how a localized cluster can contribute to innovation in the younger firm, while the more ‘mature innovator’ looks further afield. However, at a still later stage, the mature innovator may also benefit from the transfer of knowledge in a cluster, as it helps solve the problem of absorbing ‘tacit knowledge’ from ‘distributed R&D’.

Networking is an effective strategy for both economic and regional development, as the results of project management at the trans-regional level demonstrate. Cooperation between the Western Norway Training Partnership (WNTP) and Erfurt Technology Centre (TZE) shows that international teamwork is productive and that project administration is relatively low-cost. Both partners have carried out various projects within the European Commission's COMETT, Leonardo Da Vinci and Fifth Framework Research programmes. Seven years of cooperation between WNTP and TZE have resulted not only in increased awareness about both regions in political, academic and business circles, but also in the establishment of the Trade House, to increase exports, as well as the completion of a Bilateral Agreement of Regional Cooperation for further development of activities and contacts. Inter-regional and inter-sectoral links with local authorities, financial funds, research institutes, innovation centres and non-governmental organizations have been established to explore further possibilities for cooperation in training, research, business and culture. In this paper, the partners share experiences, analyse implications and discuss strategies that bring mutual benefits.

The UK-based based TCS (formerly the Teaching Company Scheme) has proven to be highly successful in fostering innovation and collaboration between research organizations and the wider industrial community. Of necessity, the scheme's administrative mechanisms are highly prescriptive. This paper compares and contrasts TCS with an Australian technology transfer scheme that has a specific focus on the manufacturing sector. The Australian programme has produced successful outcomes with few administrative controls.

Emanating from its ‘last bus stop on the planet’ remoteness, New Zealand has traditionally faced significant barriers to the development of its export base. In the new knowledge-based economies, many of these barriers no longer apply. In order to take advantage of this new global environment and turn around its declining economic performance, New Zealand must take a number of key steps. The authors propose an approach that will enable the country to develop a knowledge-based advanced technology sector that will: specialize in niche products; be flexible and responsive; have a range of products and services across a number of industrial sectors; and have a global market focus. In proposing this solution, they focus on the respective roles of government, industry, research providers and education providers, and make recommendations accordingly.

This paper deals with historical and contemporary aspects of engineering education in Russia. The authors assess cooperation among Russian universities and industrial enterprises, using the aerospace industry as an example. They present the results of close cooperation between leading Russian aerospace companies during the national economic crisis of the past few years. Examples of positive results from international cooperation within the framework of the Russian–British International Aerospace School are analysed from the point of view of current and future international aerospace projects.

The realization of market value from research outputs is increasingly an objective of the UK National Health Service (NHS), universities and industry. All recognize that this can be achieved more effectively through collaborative relationships, increasingly as equal partnerships, with each partner contributing its own expertise and facilities towards a common goal. The benefits are likely to be measured in more cost-effective research, job creation and increasing wealth. The benefits for the NHS include more cost-effective healthcare and quality of service. For industry, there are new products and processes with which to expand its product base and which are increasingly expensive to develop in-house. For universities, there is the potential for income generation to reinvest in further research. Severally, each type of organization can contribute; jointly, the development of synergistic interactions may provide a powerful argument to dispel the charge that the UK, whilst good at invention, is poor at innovation. This paper describes a model for university–NHS Trust collaboration in innovation management being evaluated in Northwest England by the ‘manIP’ project (a collaborative partnership between the three ‘Teaching’ NHS Trusts and the four Greater Manchester universities).

Since the inception of the European Space Agency's (ESA) technology transfer programme (TTP) in 1990, more than 400 potential spin-off technologies have been marketed throughout Europe by the Spacelink network of technology brokers that have been contracted to assist ESA in implementing the programme. During the eight years of programme operation, more than 70 transfers of space technology to many sectors of industry throughout Europe have been achieved. Over half of the technology donor and receiver companies to date have been SMEs. The work done by the TTP and Spacelink is complemented by ESA's recently established SME Initiative, which aims to promote better interactions between SMEs and the space industry as a whole. This paper describes both of these ESA programmes, and outlines ways in which SMEs can be supported and participate in space technology transfer activities.