Articles
The Prime Minister announced in October that the Technology Strategy Board would be spearheading a new network of elite Technology and Innovation Centres for the UK. This is an idea whose time has come. Such a network of centres has been recommended in influential reports by Hermann Hauser and James Dyson, and I am delighted that, as the UK’s national innovation agency, we will be taking forward this important initiative.
It is an exciting programme. Sitting between the worlds of academia and business, these centres will enable cutting-edge research to be pushed forward and translated swiftly into commercial opportunities. Creating a critical mass of activity, they will reach into the knowledge base for world leading technology and expertise, undertake collaborative research projects with business or carry out contracted research, and allow businesses to access expertise, infrastructure, skills and equipment that would otherwise be out of reach.
In January, we published a prospectus that outlines how we will establish the network of six to eight world-leading centres – starting by fast-tracking a centre focused on high-value manufacturing. Manufacturing is one of the primary ways we create wealth from new technologies – so high-value manufacturing is a key strand of government investment in growth.
We are confident that such a centre can provide an early contribution to growth, and there is already business demand for applied research services. Manufacturing is a broad area, and we anticipate that a centre in this area will help unlock synergies across the sector by taking a broad view of high-value manufacturing.
How will we identify the technology areas that will be the focus of the other centres? The key is to focus on areas where there are:
- global markets worth billions of pounds per annum
- world-leading UK research capability
- an ability in UK business to exploit the technology to capture a significant share of the value chain
- an opportunity to anchor knowledge-intensive activities and secure sustainable wealth creation for the UK
- and an alignment with national strategic priorities
Our initial proposal is that the other priority technology areas should include energy and resource efficiency; transport systems; healthcare; ICT; and electronics, photonics and electrical systems. These are broad fields, and centres may well have a tighter technical focus and definition within, or across, these areas. Some areas may warrant more than one centre and we are not necessarily looking to establish a centre for every candidate area.
I am keen to hear what you think. We need to hear the views of business, academia and researchers to help shape how the centres will be developed. We would welcome input on the initial list of candidate technology areas by 18 February; please email comments to centres@tsb.gov.uk.
We also welcome views on other areas that might be candidates in subsequent phases of the programme, where the UK has a particular strength and a centre would meet the criteria. And you are welcome to join the debate on the _connect collaboration forum.
The Technology and Innovation Centres initiative is a key part of the government’s programme to rebalance the economy and create future economic growth. It complements the rest of the “innovation system” and will help to ensure that the UK is at the cutting edge of science, manufacturing and technology. I am looking forward to working with the business and research communities to fulfil this promise.
