Life on a small offshore island

Revisiting this blog 7 years later and it is interesting to recognise how much remains the same. Now based on the Isle of Wight and concerned in local issues I see how a small part of the UK operates with a subset of the innovative organisations and with island specific issues of time and cost.

In the wider UK we still see a healthy landscape of universities, partnership organisations, centres of excellence and industry. With new centres, for example in graphene, and new innovation organisations such as the Catapults in key technology areas. There is also an apparent centralisation of innovation into larger centres and cities such as Manchester, Glasgow and London. 

One of the interesting areas which has powered ahead is software technology companies emerging in a London ecosystem. I was involved in early discussions on the infrastructure to support these companies through Science Parks and emerging infrastructure in 2011. These elements have subsequently developed with the key elements such as a critical mass of trained specialists, links to finance and markets through the City of London producing for example new products in fintech and social media. 

 The Innovation Map which I produced while in the Civil Service details the key strands that are needed to create and commercialise new innovative products and services. When I left the UK seemed to be in an enviable position with all those elements within a stable ecosystem, and with wider links to the rest of the world. However the UK is consumed for now, and the foreseeable future, by the relationship with Europe. A self inflicted wound that damages key relationships and make access to market harder. We see companies moving business and HQs outside the UK and concerns over the loss of easy market access to Europe, the largest free market economy in the world. When manufacturing and service companies relocate outside the UK it damages our innovation ecosystem while scaring off the students, specialists and entrepreneurs that we need to build and support our key industries. 

Returning to the Isle of Wight there are interesting companies, some innovative opportunities and limited links to research and expertise elsewhere. Unfortunately the short stretch of water to mainland UK showcases how unfettered financial manipulation of the key transport link of ferries leads to horrendous transport costs and restrictions that damage industry and innovation. Let alone the social costs of isolation and practical exclusion from some critical healthcare systems. These issues mirror the problems that the UK will face if we build new barriers between us and our largest market and help demonstrate why I support all efforts to persuade the British people to remain in the EU.

UK Science Parks -overseas possibilities

Science Parks have a critical role to play in the UK commercial offer to the world. They provide an ideal environment to nurture and help the growth of highly innovative companies. The UK Science Park movement in its many different guises and structures has a global reputation with a key position in the UK innovation ecosystem, which by several measures of impact is the best in the world. There are many factors to a great Science Park, including international linkages, which are explored below.

Science Parks provide a hard, and critically soft, infrastructure that provides a supportive and elitist approach to develop innovative industry. The Science Park movement in the UK encompasses over 70 different places each with their own unique offering from geographical to sector focussed. With a focus on simplicity these are the major items for success, in order of importance:-

a)   Ambition and resources.

b)   Leadership with an individual vision and a supportive senior group.

c)   Links to research base such as Research Council assets, Universities and R&D intensive industry.

d)   Peer spaces such as coffee shops, cafés and networking opportunities.

e)   Supporting soft infrastructure e.g. lawyers, IP professionals, finance advisor and providers, not to forget mentor and business advisory services.

f)    Sector focus.

g)   The physical space - a small, but critical, part of the whole. However a shiny new building with a marble foyer, glass atrium and a rigid hierarchy is the worst place for organic growth

Separately there is the mindset required of a nurturing but competitive environment. A science Park does not happen by accident and getting all partners to agree a strategic approach is essential. It is amazing how often strategy is diverted by undue focus on difficult detail. Tenants need to see tough love, as we all know 80% of effort is expended on helping also ran’s survive. If at first they don't succeed move them out! Remember Science Parks are not incubators which are an early stage supportive environment. At the other end as a company becomes successful the ambition should be to help them grow beyond into Business Parks and dedicated facilities, perhaps with the adventurous R&D side retaining a presence in the Science Park.

International Agenda

The two areas to be addressed are

1)   Helping existing companies looking to trade globally

2)   Providing overseas companies with a landing zone to grow their businesses in the UK, and international partnerships where Science Parks provide a neutral supportive environment.

The UK government provides guidance through the UKTI, Business Links and Regional Development Agencies/Devolved Assemblies (RDA/DA) and of course there are consultancies that provide strategic and direct advice, eg my firm Yew Tree Associates.

International Trading Opportunities

Tenants looking to trade overseas need international awareness, capability and knowledge of markets. The UKTI structure provides this as one of the most effective national trade agencies in the world with a principle aim to help companies into international markets.

The first port of call in England is the International Trade Advisers, currently to be found in 9 regional groups. Several Science Parks already have dedicated ITAs and the attention of the International Trade Directors but if there is currently no contact the UKTI website provides the relevant link. Former UKTI colleagues are focussed on targets and helping companies through a tool called Passport for Export so make sure they understand how you, your tenants and your partners provide access to innovative companies. Wales, Scotland and NI have their own similar public agencies.

Local UKTI also link to national Sector Groups, and Marketing group who run events in the UK and overseas.  Eg   “Technology World in Partnership with UK Nanoforum”; a project managed by my old team with some 150 exhibitors, 2000 attendees and over 50 Countries attending.

UKTI Sector Groups also employ specialists to support companies overseas in markets from Europe to the US, and everywhere else as well. Other specialists include ones for High Growth Market, and Global Supply Chain covering areas such as China and India.

Importantly local UKTI teams provide access route to UKTI people based in Embassies and Consulates overseas. These are dedicated Embassy staff that through a heavily subsidised mechanism called Overseas Market Information System (OMIS) provide market reports, receptions overseas, key introductions in market and other possibilities limited only by resources and imagination. PS I can recommend Gert Wauters in Belgium as one of the best Trade Officers in panoply of talent!

Inward Investment and Collaborative Opportunities

Attracting inward investors into UK Science Parks we can distinguish small companies moving too, or developing in the UK, Medium size companies expanding into the UK and large companies setting up outposts or small divisions in Science Parks. Entirely separate is the large company wanting a substantial part of the Science Park dedicated to their interests, something to be cautious about which requires a lot of thought and planning.

Currently Inward Investment is supported by RDA/DA teams. The RDA inward investment work is being integrated into UKTI as the RDAs reduce their organisations. Detailed plans will be released by UKTI in spring 2011. In the devolved Assemblies Inward Investment is led by local agencies.

UKTI has central Sector teams for Inward Investment and dedicated Inward Investment staff in overseas UKTI posts e.g. in New York, Tokyo and Madrid. There are also Inward Investment specialists in UKTI HQ to support possible inward investors to understand the various parts of the UK offering. This includes planning, tax and skills specialists as well as sector and country specialists. UKTI also provides a coordination role with RDA/DA teams to en sure that the UK offer is coherent and clear.

Science Parks provide an important part of the UK offer with their hard and soft infrastructure and supply chain offerings which provide a soft landing for overseas investors. The opportunities around partnerships with UK companies in Science Parks also provide access to the virtual world of collaborations and Open Innovation possibilities.

To be successful the specific capabilities and interests of Science parks and their tenants needs to be communicated to local and subsequently national inward investment teams. Given the complexity of Science Parks a UKSPA led approach is worth considering.

Science Parks in the UK are moving from Mainly Public Sector support to a mixed model with private industry dealing with the high value offerings of Science Parks as investments. To promote success in a world of declining public sector support an efficient and coherent approach is essential and I urge Science Parks and their tenants to embrace the opportunities, especially for international possibilities.

12th Christmas Piece- Industry

A final part of 12 Christmas blogs articles, that expand on the Innovation Map theme - industry and the part it plays in innovation. Given everything focuses on innovations being products and services to market industry is the real deliverer and all other organisations play a supporting role.

Looking at companies carrying out R&D there are three categories:-

1/ Mainstream manufacturing companies 

Where R&D is an enabling approach towards new innovation to market.

Often there is a focus on the large manufacturing companies that perform R&D such as Rolls Royce, GSK, and Jaguar Landrover. It is worth noting that in the UK if you look at companies that are active players in R&D there are a number of interesting factors. Firstly that foreign owned companies i.e. inward investors account for some 35% of R&D spend. Next R&D spend and innovation within SMEs accounts for about half of the total, looking at companies such as Intrinsiq & ARM. The critical issue to to make sure that the various public sector approaches eg through the TSB are focussed on high growth large opportunity markets. Weir pumps with its niche markets is a good example.

2/ Service Companies

Seen widely in areas such as engineering, construction delivery and consultancy eg Arup or in delivery innovations eg Babcock and SERCO, or in financial services, London Stock Exchange. The NESTA work on measuring service innovation has gone a long way towards a recognition that these very successful parts of the UK economy are constantly innovating business models and offerings making the UK a global leader in these areas. If we pick up on facts from my Innovation Map we see the Management Consulting industry worth upwards of £8 billion, second only to the US and more important on a per capita basis than any other country.

3/ Research & Technology Organisations

where the purpose of the company is to realise value from the process of R&D and innovation. There are a number of companies loosely connected through the main body AIRTO and other such as TTP and Cambridge Consultants. We also see a much wider range of boutique R&D companies in areas such as Chemicals, software, photonics and creative media.

This is a key area for the UK where inventiveness and a capability to reach outside the boundaries of sciences or sectors to develop unusual and cross cutting possibilities. The UK is renowned for this capability and it gives the lie to the statements that the UK has high level Academic excellence but fails to translate that into products on the market.

The other myth is that the UK has limited high technology mass manufacturing and fails to exploit ideas and early stage innovation. Given the value added is often at the R&D end, where the UK does well, tying into business and services innovation we can see why the UK has such a strong diverse economy. It is also worth looking into how manufacturing and services are defined as often services provided are critical parts of manufacturing processes and approaches.

If we look at the general picture certainly there are areas where the UK could do better :-

A) building medium sized companies as world leaders in niche areas

B) consistent support for mechanisms rather than 3-5 year cycles and constant re jigging of the landscape. The KTN model and the Knowledge Transfer Programme are examples of continuing very successful approaches that need substantial periods of time, say a decade, to settle and prove their worth whilst given steady consistent support.

C) Recognising and shouting about our success. As one of the strongest nations in innovation having improved dramatically in the last 30 years and sitting very comfortably as a flexible and successful economy.

The ability to work across boundaries is extremely important, and anything that industry or the public sector can do to improve cross working is worth pursuing. Not forgetting the major elements that inward investors and export led innovation deliver.

The UK as a principle trading nation benefits from a free market in goods and services and all of the elements that make up the UK Innovation ecosystem. That free flow of people ideas and capital needs to be maintained at all costs if we are to benefit from a more globalised world.

Business support from Professional services

This piece deals with underpinning elements that offer frameworks for the development of commercial innovations and is the penultimate note for this Christmas season. Apologies if this sounds like an extended advert for UK capabilities however various overseas visits demonstrate that what we take for granted in the UK is missing or in a poorer state elsewhere in the world.

Looking at a disparate group of companies, organisations and partnerships that provide the professional support and backup for developing business and innovations the common factors are expensive professional groups, deep expertise and complex environments. 

 

Starting with each the prime area of IP professionals. Patent specialists and trade mark and IP professionals providing the approach and legal steps to protect IP. They also provide a much wider task of identifying conflicting patents and IP that will stymie protection attempts. Delivering the first step in setting up a solid set of intellectual assets that can provide the basis of a fund-able business.

In turn lawyers provide the underpinning of a business and allow the creation and development of the the company as a corporate entity as well as the development of the various property, asset use and employment that support a thriving business.

The final group are in the often overlooked areas of design, marketing and creative services that position and develop markets for innovations. Business may be driven by the ideas and passions of the inventors ignoring market pull and development of opportunities within market segments.

In the best Science Parks, Incubators, Universities technology exchange set ups and through business development arenas we see the inclusion of these various supporting bodies of professionals linked in at an early stage they provide a reality check for those with limited proposals and underpinning for ideas that offer real potential.

Within the UK we have a cadre of experience professionals and commercial entities keen and capable of working with innovative companies of all sizes as well as a stability of regulation and a clear non corrupt system that allow the rule of law not favours to prevail. They play a vital and often overlooked role in supporting highly innovative and fast growing companies whilst supporting the minority of ideas and people that spin out from Universities and the research sectors.

The UK as a major provider of high quality company services and a world centre for the global offering of services is a fantastic place to access expertise. We can also see that the elements for successful companies and for the UK offering as a a stable and comfortable landing ground for inward investments, is a major factor in UK successes.

Technology Transfer organisations - a view

Lets start with the simple straightforward facts and see where they lead us!

Technology Transfer organisations within Universities play a critical role in supporting technology transfer from academia to industry and have developed in the UK over the last 20 years to an effective and efficient set of organisations. However the most effective approaches are wider than the simple methods of IP identification , patenting and realising value via licensing and company creation. For example the expertise in IP identification and exploitation generated by bodies such as ISIS and Imperial Innovation is fantastic but is only part of the story.

I've discussed before than IP realisation on is not the major part of an Academic offering and the better and wider thinking organisations have taken on the role of optimising general engagement with industry. The routes include direct contact, skills development for, and with industry and the creation of longer term partnerships that involve joint resource investment and exploitation by the best people. Working with various Universities over the past 6 years engaging them with UKTI and supporting their international engagements it is clear that looking at a range of Universities such as Kings College, Exeter, Hertfordshire, Coventry, and Salford get the overall idea. Which is that engaging with the external world not only supports the greater UK offering but also ensures impact of academics and staff is much greater. I should add that other Universities also have their areas of excellence and the government line that the UK University sector is world beating has to be recognised.

Within the 160 UK Academic Institutions there exists a healthy competition and a wide variety of different strategies, strengths and strategic industry links. The one trend that I really support given such a large and healthy set of bodies is cooperative approaches, especially overseas. Honourable mention here of SetSquared and the West Midlands Universities. The development of real partnerships has to deal with the academic arrogance seen in long established Universities. This may be justified in brilliance of minds, where I wouldn't try and compete!, but certainly offers a one way route to increasing irrelevance.

Recently in a number of places I've been putting forward the idea that in London we have the leading Academic City of the World, bar none! Lets hope that there are enough people with vision and drive to make more of that fact for the benefit of the UK as a whole.

As background the key organisations in this area include PraxisUnico, Auril and the wider group body of the Institute of Knowledge Transfer. My concern is that as bodies they focus on the process identification, protection and exploitation of IP neglecting the wider offering that Universities can provide. Although that is tempered by the many individually brilliant and effective people, sometimes stymied by the academic hierarchy.

Learned Societies

UK expert bodies have a long tradition of promoting innovation across the world. The Royal

Society is a premier international organisations for distinguished scientists whose members, including many Nobel prize winners, have always worked closely with industry to develop knowledge and create the conditions for new technologies and innovative practices.

If you look at the formation 250 years ago luminaries such as Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren married scientific endeavour and real life application to advance science and the uses of sciences. The current fellows are elected on the basis of their scientific success and there has been a movement away from industrial engagement. However the Royal Societies venture funding and the engagement of the society with government and others to promote and support their part of the innovation landscape recognises the importance of high level science.

The Royal Academy of Engineering has played a similar role, and the critical importance of engineering means that the fellows of the Academy are major figures in many companies and as senior academics. The heart of the UK capability in manufacturing and other industries.

A list of the five learned academies in the UK ranging in age from decades to centuries is below. They are independent charitable bodies supporting researchers, influencing policy and engaging with the public.

The Royal Society

The Royal Society of Edinburgh

The Royal Academy of Engineering

British Academy

Academy of Medical Sciences

A sample of five other institutions include :-

Society of Biology

Royal Society of Chemistry

institute of Physics

British Computer Society

Institute of Engineering and Technology

The UK contains some of the oldest and most illustrious institutions and showcase the depth of capability and the underpinning for innovation in the UK. We often see concerns about other countries developing their abilities but with an underpinning of organisations and people together with attractiveness to international excellence the UK is strongly placed to continue as a leading innovative country. Worth noting is how these organisations have not only extended their international activities but engage with other innovation organisations to deliver a coherent UK approach.

research facilities and their use

A change of direction from description of an area with a few ideas, to a cri de coeur to ensure UK research capabilities recognise real life issues.

There are approx 160 academic institutions in the UK, some 30 public sector research establishments any number of corporate labs, and Large Research Facilities such as the European Bioinformatics Institute, Diamond and Harwell European Fusion Research Centre.

Concentrating on the public sector what do they generate and how do they play a part in the UK innovation system?

I've previously mentioned for industry the critical aspect of these places is the provision of skilled people for industry. Academic excellence and the research output is the parallel line helping in the development of new and existing industry development. For me the interesting part is how these facilities in totality enable the UK to innovate through the development of knowledge and using a partnering and cooperative approach.

Within the UK there is a recognition of the importance of playing a strong part in UK PLC. The tie between blue skies research, problem solving research and industrially focussed problem solving is essential to avoid the problem of academic arrogance, balkanisation and isolation. Which I'm glad to say is less of an issue in the UK than many other countries.

All leading to my strong support for new research measurements approaches and a hope that will it be extended to other institutes! In current financial climes the justification for research needs to be simple and compelling with a recognition that it is not just about markets but about fundamental development of knowledge and a recognition of where it cab be used. And if you're really nice to me I'll give you a list of instituations worth talking too and others who aren't.