Faculty of Computing, Engineering & Technology

Professor Hongnian Yu

Digital Economy

Digital Britain

Faculty of Computing, Engineering & Technology

Introduction

• A digital economy is an economy that is based on electronic goods and services produced by an electronic business and traded through electronic commerce. That is, a business with electronic production and management processes and that interacts with its partners and customers and conducts transactions through Internet and Web technologies. (en.wikipedia.org)

• Digital Economy is defined by the Research Councils as the novel design or use of information and communication technologies to help transform the lives of individuals, society or business.

• The Digital Economy is an RCUK cross-Research Council Programme, aimed at realising the transformational impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for all aspects of Business, Society and Government.

• ‘Research in the Wild’ is about enabling researchers, in the digital economy, to expose and test their research ideas with potential beneficiaries – for example, the individual, business and/or society – in order to get closer to achieving a viable proposition with potential for transformational impact.

Faculty of Computing, Engineering & Technology

The Research Challenge

• Increasingly, the novel, innovative and in some cases subversive design and use of new technologies can revolutionise existing business processes or create new business and social paradigms.

Faculty of Computing, Engineering & Technology

Digital Britain (1)

• The Communications Sector is one of the three largest sectors in UK economy alongside energy and financial services.

• The UK’s digital economy accounts for around 8% of GDP. • It has been one of the fastest growing successes of the past

decade. • UK pioneered digital television and radio and have led the way

in a national switchover programme. • Britain has the highest proportion of internet advertising of any

developed economy. • By 2012 £1 in every £5 of all new commerce in the UK will be

online.

Faculty of Computing, Engineering & Technology

The growing global focus on digital technology

• President Obama’s technology-based American presidential campaign changed the face of US elections and he has made it clear that he sees both technology and a strong communications infrastructure as vital to economic recovery and growth. This includes a radical approach to the deployment of a modern communications infrastructure, including redefining universal service to extend its scope to broadband and unleashing the power of the wireless radio spectrum.

• The French Government has recently launched its France Numerique 2012 plan, an ambitious communications sector strategy designed to strengthen France’s digital position and enhance its broader competitiveness at a time of global economic slowdown and crisis.

• The message laid out in the plan is clear: the digital economy is the most dynamic sector in the world and as the global recession bites, it is essential to nurture those parts of the economy that can generate growth potential and jobs.

Faculty of Computing, Engineering & Technology

The Information Age Partnership

• The Information Age Partnership (IAP) is a partnership for action between industry and Government, comprising Ministers and Chief Executives of the UK’s leading IT, Electronics, Communications and Content companies.

• IAP aims to ensure that ICT is effectively deployed to accelerate innovation and productivity growth across the economy and to impact directly on the priorities of small and medium sized businesses. This helps the UK to take maximum global advantage of the technological, economic and political developments that characterise the information age and can drive the UK’s economic recovery.

• IAP will become an even more important and valuable forum for engagement between Government and industry, with a mission to ensure that the promise of Digital Britain is realised.

Faculty of Computing, Engineering & Technology

Digital Britain: Five objectives

• Upgrading and modernising UK digital networks – wired, wireless and broadcast – so that Britain has an infrastructure that enables it to remain globally competitive in the digital world;

• A dynamic investment climate for UK digital content, applications and services, that makes the UK an attractive place for both domestic and inward investment in UK digital economy;

• UK content for UK users: content of quality and scale that serves the interests, experiences and needs of all UK citizens; in particular impartial news, comment and analysis;

• Fairness and access for all: universal availability coupled with the skills and digital literacy to enable near-universal participation in the digital economy and digital society; and

• Developing the infrastructure, skills and take-up to enable the widespread online delivery of public services and business interface with Government.

Faculty of Computing, Engineering & Technology

EPSRC Funding Focus

Essential Platform for theKnowledge Economy

and much of the Rest of Science

Securing the Future

Energy

TowardsTowardsNextNext

GenerationGenerationHealthHealthCareCare

TowardsTowardsBetterBetter

ExploitationExploitation

DigitalEconomy

NanoScience through Engineering to application