UNIVERSITY ALLIANCE

Growing the future: universities leading,changing and creatingthe regional economy

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The Government’s growth reviewpublished earlier this year set outsome important and ambitiousgoals for the UK economy. We wouldargue that universities have a centralrole to play in realising theseambitions. They encourageinvestment, exports and a morebalanced economy; create aneducated, flexible workforce; andare key to making the UK the bestplace in Europe to start, finance andgrow a business.

Indeed, the central role of universities within our innovation-based economy is asignificant focus for UniversityAlliance. We know that ouruniversities are providing more thanjust a degree; and that they aremore than just part of the education system.

Universities are playing a criticalrole in driving the UK’s economicfuture. Through multiple andoverlapping interactions acrosssociety, they occupy a key positionin the regional economy. As ‘anchorinstitutions’ they deliver manyshared priorities with government.

‘Growing the future’ illustratesthis vital role through the voices ofthe very people who have experienced first-hand the power of genuine engagement and partnership with all that theuniversity has to offer.

Janet Beer, Chair, University Alliance

Libby Hackett, Director, University Alliance

Leaders in business and the professions, politicians, local authorities, universities, economistsand academics, from the UK andabroad all tell a compelling story ofthe historic, current and future roleof universities in the regionaleconomy and local enterprise; andwhy, therefore, universities must be central to the local, regional, and national, growth strategy.

This is not just about seeking furtherinvestment in universities. In manycases realising potential is aboutrecognising existing investment in asignificant area of strength for theUK economy, then mapping it acrossgovernment priorities beyond theeducation and skills system. The factis that in an increasingly competitiveglobal and innovation-led economy,none of us can afford to ignore therich resource that such partnershipscan provide.

We are grateful to all our contributors for providing such engaging and thought-provokingpieces and to Professor Wendy Purcell for supporting the project as it has developed.

We hope you find this publicationinformative and inspiring as youconsider the benefits to be gainedin your own region through working – for mutual benefit – withuniversities.

Universities are playing a critical rolein driving the UK’s economic future.Through multiple and overlapping interactions across society, they occupya key position in the regional economy.As ‘anchor institutions’ they delivermany shared priorities with government.

‘Growing the future’ illustrates thisvital role through the voices of the very people who have experienced first-hand the power of genuine engagement and partnership with allthat the university has to offer.

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Universities are important for their own sake, as centresof enquiry and learning, yet the UK’s higher educationsector also has a vital role to play in the economy.Universities generate and transfer commercially useableknowledge. They prepare people for the world of work.They employ nearly 400,000 people around the country.Higher education is one of our great export industries.

The Government has made a clearcommitment to universities, byputting student finance on asustainable footing and bymaintaining and ring-fencing thescience and research budget forthe next four years.

The best universities, meanwhile,are seeking stronger links tobusiness and making sure theirgraduates have the skills employersneed. There is a greaterunderstanding of the capacity ofuniversities to provide regionaleconomic leadership than everbefore. As many of the chaptershere show, much regeneration,economic development andregional employment is directlyattributable to the presence of auniversity. That is one reason whywe are pleased to see universitiesrepresented at the heart of the newLocal Economic Partnerships.

Many employers questioned aspart of the 2011 CBI Education and

Skills Survey expressed concernabout the content of some degreesand stressed the need for greaterfocus on practical and team-working skills. I hope that businesswill become more directlyengaged in higher education –sponsoring students and whereappropriate helping in coursedesign, as well as supportingresearch.

Indeed, I want all our universities tolook more closely at how they workwith business: to promote betterteaching, employer sponsorshipand innovation. We have askedProfessor Sir Tim Wilson, theformer Vice-Chancellor ofHertfordshire and one of theauthors here, to review university-industry collaboration.

We will take the evidence in thisimportant new publication intoaccount as we prepare ourresearch and innovation strategy,which will be published later

this year. I urge the UniversityAlliance to participate and thankthem for bringing so many expertstogether here.

Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP,Secretary of State for Business,Innovation and Skills

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Creating and diffusing research-led innovation 37Placing universities at the heart of our innovation system, Will Hutton, Chair of the Big Innovation Centre 38

What does it take to make the electric dream a reality? Suzanne Gray, Project Manager, Mini E 40

Turning pioneering ideas and technologies into commercial success, Phil Cooper, Managing Director, Venture Wales 42

Enabling innovation to flourish, Dr Graham Spittle, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, IBM Software Group Europe 44

Knowledge workforce 47India: a nation built on geeky graduates, Angela Saini, Award winning science journalist and author 48

Reinvigorating the city through knowledge and talent: Greater Manchester’s universities, Mike Emmerich, Chief Executive, New Economy 50

Little to lose and much to gain, Sam Laidlaw, Chief Executive, Centrica 52

Empowering the regional economy through technology education, Nick Wilson, Managing Director, Hewlett Packard UK and Ireland 54

Attracting inward investment 57Universities and the five drivers of productivity, Ed Cox, Director, IPPR North 58

Higher Education and economic growth – a Scottish perspective, Dr Lena Wilson, Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise 60

Attracting investment in Northern Ireland, Professor Tony Gallagher, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Queen’s University Belfast 62

Siemens and the University of Lincoln Engineering Hub, Professor Andrew Atherton, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Enterprise and Innovation), University of Lincoln 64

Facts and figures 66

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Setting the scene, Professor Wendy Purcell, Vice-Chancellor, Plymouth University 08

Regional leadership and ‘anchor’ capacity 11Universities as 'anchor institutions' in the knowledge economy, Dr Neil Lee, Senior Economist, The Work Foundation 12

Out of the lecture theatre and into regional growth, Alan Qualtrough, Editor, Western Morning News 14

Facing the challenges of a rapidly changing world, Barry Sheerman MP, Labour and Co-operative member of Parliament for Huddersfield 16

Universities and their role in regional economies – a local authority perspective, Tony Williams, Executive Director, Bournemouth Borough Council 18

From Victorian mills to factories of ideas, Sir Patrick Stewart, Chancellor, University of Huddersfield 20

The university in its place, Professor John Brennan, Director of the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information, Open University Business School 22

Change agents: starting, growing and supporting enterprise 25Fulfilling the potential of universities to drive economic growth, Sir Tim Wilson, Chair of Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership 26

From Dandy to digital: universities transforming regional economies, Sir Richard Lambert, Chancellor of the University of Warwick and former Director-General of CBI 28

Supporting the economic recovery through partnership, James Ramsbotham, Chief Executive of the North East Chambers of Commerce 30

Creating connections in MediaCity, Professor Brian Longhurst, Director, FIRM,Media CityUK 32

Networks, sneak-outs and reservoirs of expertise, David Docherty, Chief Executive, Council For Industry and Higher Education 34

Contents

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Universities are critical to the futuregrowth of our economy. I could justleave it there; it is a well-rehearsedphrase, a fact that those of us fromwithin the sector are deeply proud.

But however much we may see thisstatement as indisputable; this roleis often underplayed, under-utilisedand misunderstood. This is the issuethat this booklet seeks to address.Not just through the words of peoplelike me, who form part of the sector,but from big businesses, small andmedium sized enterprises (SMEs),think-tanks, politicians and local authorities. Those with a shared interest in the future success of theirregional economy. Universities canact as catalysts for growth, workingin partnership with other regionalactors to drive change and deliverinnovation and skills.

Through these voices, this bookletaims to map out and explain exactlywhat we mean when we talk aboutthe broad and deep role universitiescan play towards delivering regionalgrowth.

In regional leadership and ‘anchor’ capacity, Dr Neil Leefrom The Work Foundation points

out that ‘Universities are unique organisations in many cities – oftenthe only institution with the scaleand connectedness to drive economic growth and shape thephysical environment’. The storyAlan Qualtrough tells is testament tothis as he describes his own journey as a local journalistdocumenting the changingeconomy of Plymouth through toplaying an active role in bringingtogether a partnership between hisnewspaper and Plymouth Universityto secure significant investment viaa successful bid to the RegionalGrowth Fund. Barry Sheerman MPplaces the issue in a global contextarguing that universities are not onlycentral to understanding a changingworld economy but also operatingin an environment where power andinfluence is shifting from West toEast. Tony Williams, Executive Director of Bournemouth CountyCouncil brings the ‘anchor’ institution to life in his description ofthe multiple ways that BournemouthUniversity plays its part at the heartof the town while Sir Patrick Stewartprovides a personal perspective onhow the University of Huddersfield

has shaped the growth and renewalof this post-industrial region. FinallyProfessor John Brennan provides amore academic overview of theclose links between universities andtheir place.

In change agents, Sir Tim Wilsonprovides his unique perspective asChair of Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership and formerVice-Chancellor of the University ofHertfordshire reflecting on how wemight make full use of universities’potential. Sir Richard Lambert tells acompelling story of the role ofuniversities in regional transformation linked closely togovernment priorities to rebalancethe economy, support innovationand address economic inequalities.James Ramsbotham, from the NorthEast Chambers of Commerce, tellshow the region’s universities areplaying a central role in supportingrecovery in this part of the country.From the North West, ProfessorBrian Longhurst focuses on the impact of MediaCity within the region, but also on the wider UKeconomy. David Docherty roundsoff the picture by describing thetransformational effect of the

Setting the scene: how universities are leading,changing and creating in the regional economyProfessor Wendy Purcell, Vice-Chancellor, Plymouth University

networks and knowledge communities that exist around universities.

In creating and diffusing research-led innovation, Will Hutton makes it clear; ‘truevalue in a knowledge economy onlycomes from innovation – we cannot compete on price, low-wage labour,or physical assets. So we need to invest in knowledge and competeby inventing and innovating newproducts, processes and services’.We next hear how this can be putinto practice by BMW Group, Venture Wales and IBM SoftwareGroup. Whether this is throughworking with cross-disciplinary research teams, supporting graduate entrepreneurs or creatingthe right conditions to drive andsustain innovation. Graham Spittleconcludes that greater integrationand mobility is needed betweenuniversities, private sector companies and individual entrepreneurs if the UK is to compete successfully.

In knowledge workforce, AngelaSaini, author of ‘Geek Nation: howIndian science is taking over theworld’, brings an international perspective. Angela reflects on hertravel between India and Britainwhile writing her book and the extent to which we in Britain takeour universities for granted while

India desperately tries to meet asurging demand for universityplaces. Closer to home, Mike Emmerich from New Economy discusses the impact of fresh talentbrought to Greater Manchester byits universities. Sam Laidlaw, ChiefExecutive of Centrica focuses onthe high-level skills needs of engineering and manufacturing aswell as the opportunities of collaboration between businessesand universities. Finally, Nick Wilson, from Hewlett Packard, reflects on the company’s experience of working with the University of the West of England tocreate courses relevant to businessneeds, promote social mobility, positively impact the local community and support other businesses in the region.

In attracting inward investment,we reflect on the role of universitiesas one of the UK’s major export industries. Ed Cox, Director of IPPRNorth, provides an overview of thefive drivers of productivity and therole of universities against each ofthese. Ed notes that university representation is integral to most ofthe recognised Local EnterprisePartnerships as well as IPPR North’sNorthern Economic Futures Commission. Lena Wilson fromScottish Enterprise and Tony Gallagher from Queen’s UniversityBelfast reflect on the vital role

universities in Scotland and Northern Ireland have played to attract investment and help buildgrowth. Professor Andrew Atherton,Deputy Vice-Chancellor at theUniversity of Lincoln, describes theexperience of working withSiemens on a partnership toestablish the first purpose builtengineering school in more than 20 years.

Altogether, these contributionspaint a powerful picture of the roleuniversities can play towards growing our future. The economicdownturn and recession have givenregions and countries across theworld reason to rethink and consider their future economicstrategies. The UK also has difficultdecisions to make about our futuredirection but we have much to beconfident about and many tools toutilise. By playing a leadership role,changing future patterns of economic growth, creating research-led innovation, buildingthe knowledge workforce and attracting inward investment, universities will surely be central toany successful plan for driving acompetitive future economy.

As ‘anchor’ institutions within their regions, universities have fundamentally shaped the character of the places where they are located. Through their intellectual contribution, brand, role as a major employer and active contribution to the development ofregional economic strategy, universities are playing acritical leadership role.

Regional leadership and‘anchor’ capacity

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Universities as ‘anchor institutions’ in the knowledge economyDr Neil Lee, Senior Economist, The Work Foundation

The UK economy is undergoinglong-term structural change. The production, use and dissemination of knowledge hasbecome increasingly important,while routine production has become less so. Knowledge-basedsectors are increasingly important:at the start of the 1970s, less than aquarter of economic activity was in‘knowledge based services’ – it isnow closer to half.

Much of the UK has benefited fromthis transition, with successfulknowledge-intensive industries creating new jobs paying higherwages. Universities have been critical in this change, creating theskilled, adaptable workers who canprofit. Cities with strong universitiesand concentration of skilled workers – ranging from London toYork – have done well from thiseconomic transition.

Yet other cities have been less successful in the transition to theknowledge economy. Cities such asMiddlesbrough or Hull have fewerof the knowledge-based industrieswhich are driving the economy.These places will often have been

reliant on the public sector as adriver of growth in the past. And it is in these cities where the role ofuniversities is equally important, but different.

Universities are unique organisations in many cities – oftenthey are the only institutions withthe scale and local connectednessto drive economic growth andshape the physical environment. In the US, the term ‘anchor institution’ has been used to describe this role. The fact they are fixed in a particular territory allows them to play an important,sustained role in local economicdevelopment.

Universities play multiple roles inlocal areas. Universities help educate the population and createthe skills needed for successfulurban economies. The traditionalrole of universities as an educator ofthe select few has been expandedto include a broader educationalremit, a function improving socialmobility. Firms are placing increased value on intangible assets and investing more in research. Linking the expertise ofuniversities to the needs of localfirms has rightly been seen as important for firms to grow andsucceed. The role of universities inurban economies – in particular the money spent by students – iscrucial in maintaining many cityeconomies.

While education, research and student expenditure are important,the role of anchor institution relieson a broader notion of the importance of universities in cities.Any institution relies on the successof the town or city in which it is located, and this can provide apowerful incentive for local engagement. The economic benefits of anchor institutions come

from demand for local goods andservices, both from staff and students. They can also shape thephysical environment, as universities have the scale to influence the built environment of acity in the way smaller landownerscannot. And universities serve asambassadors for towns and cities,bringing in talent and investment toan area and building its reputation.

Universities have recognised thisrole, and there are some great examples of good practice both inthe UK and abroad. The Universityof Pennsylvania provided homeloans for staff to ensure they livedlocally, but also to help regeneratethe area near the campus. Institutions such as ManchesterMetropolitan University have linkedplans for new buildings with long-term regeneration strategies.

The challenge will be to sustain efforts in the face of public sectorcuts. In the context of low privatesector confidence and a publicsector which is likely to shed jobs,making the most of existing assets,such as universities, will be vital formany places. The ability of universities to influence the localeconomy is particularly importantin a knowledge-led economic recovery, even more so in citieswhich are declining. Yet, as the financial support structures underwhich much of this work has happened is being removed, the role of universities as ‘anchors’ becomes more, not less, important.Universities have realised that it isin their interest to anchor localeconomies. The government needsto continue to provide incentives forthis to happen.

The ability of universities to influencethe local economy isparticularly importantin a knowledge-led economic recovery,even more so in citieswhich are declining.

Universities are uniqueorganisations in manycities – often they arethe only institutionswith the scale and localconnectedness to driveeconomic growth andshape the physical environment.

Neil Lee is Senior Economist atThe Work Foundation. He runsthe Ideopolis team whose workhelps cities and regions understand how the knowledgeeconomy affects them and whatthey need to do to grow their economy further.

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Out of the lecture theatre and into regional growthAlan Qualtrough, Editor, Western Morning News

In my experience as a regionalnewspaper editor I have witnessedin recent years one of the biggestchanges of influence towards creating the conditions forenterprise: the emergingdominance of universities over localauthorities.

I say this not supported by researchor statistics but from experience;because running a newspaper andgathering stories depends on understanding and using the pressure points of local influencersand plugging in to the lines ofpower, politics and decision-making.

The development of managementand research skills appropriate tothe business landscape of the regions they serve and the buildingof the networks necessary to encourage enterprise hasincreasingly been undertaken inuniversities. At the same time localcouncils have struggled with public spending cuts and declining service provision.

The stories in the Western MorningNews reflect this: much gloom anddoom in town halls; optimism, expansion, enterprise and

innovation in higher education. So ifstory content is a measure, the focusof regional economic developmentcan be said to have moved awayfrom the municipal towards the academic.

My journalistic life began in thecommittee rooms of Liverpool CityCouncil at a time the left-wing activist Derek Hatton was driving apolitically charged economic andsocial agenda.

As a junior reporter at the LiverpoolEcho there was only one place to gofor economic or business storiesand that was the chair of theeconomic planning committee orthe dedicated team of departmentalofficials because it was here that all the policy decisions were played out.

Hence reams of copy wereproduced with political conflict andnot consensus at the heart and withlittle thought on sustainability; achange of administration abruptlyended local plans, and thepolitically-driven process thenveered to the left or right to start again.

Many years later when I arrived inPlymouth to edit the evening paper

I found a city that wasunderperforming but full ofpotential, circumstances alsorecognised by the University, whichset about changing the university’srelationship with its stakeholders.

Professor Wendy Purcellchampioned an enterprise missionfor Plymouth University and isdelivering ‘enterprise in action’;taking theory out of the lecturetheatre and translating it into activitythrough partnership working. In other words, the University isstanding up and taking a lead on theeconomic regeneration of theregion.

Two examples of this agenda arethe Cornwall Enterprise Institute, a joint venture between PlymouthUniversity and Cornwall Collegethat will drive a "new economicdynamism" and PlymouthUniversity’s Growth Accelerationand Investment Network (GAIN), the partnership with Plymouth CityCouncil and Tamar Science Parkthat brings together the networksrequired to underpin a healthybusiness ecosystem.This work has to be put into thecontext of recent central and localgovernment economic

development and policy making inPlymouth. There had been centralgovernment intervention in the formof the Plymouth DevelopmentCorporation but this folded in 1995after its performance was describedas ‘poor stewardship of publicfunds’.

The principle was revisited nearlyten years later with the formation ofthe Plymouth City DevelopmentCompany which was wound up lastyear without making an impact onthe city.

This is not to say there have not been major economic initiatives inthe city. The Devonport districtreceived government New Deals for Communities funding of £48.7million; and the South West RegionalDevelopment Agency and theEuropean Union have madeinvestments. The Plymouth 2020local strategic partnership hasworked steadfastly for improvement.

But despite the best effortsPlymouth’s economic indicatorsremained average and in generalthere has not been a joined-upapproach to creating an enterpriseculture. This is not a criticism ofPlymouth city council’s economicregeneration policies or personnel.They are positive and work hard butare faced with reduced budgets andreduced staff numbers and asubsequent decline in influence.

So when I was encouraged to makean application to the RegionalGrowth Fund for a £1 million grant tocreate jobs in areas affected most bypublic spending cuts it was anobvious choice to ask PlymouthUniversity to partner the WesternMorning News because theenterprise networks andprofessionalism were in place.

The idea of the media linking up withhigher education was novel andpersuasive and was the classic caseof partnership working to encourageenterprise that the university hadanticipated. And the timing was right.The Coalition had just declared thatgrowth in the SME sector was a keypart of UK economic policycombined with devolving power tothe regions in the form of LocalEnterprise Partnerships. Theuniversity had anticipated this andhad a regional enterprise policy in place.

Alan Qualtrough is Editor ofWestern Morning News, who have teamed up with PlymouthUniversity in a project aiming tocreate jobs, support businessesand drive growth in the heart ofthe South West and the Cornwalland Scilly Isles local enterprisepartnership regions.

And so it proved because whenBusiness Secretary Vince Cablelaunched our Plymouth Universityand Western Morning News GrowthFund in July he described it as the‘first and best’.

The Western Morning News hasstrong regional business coverageand we see the newspaper as aforum or vehicle to discuss andencourage economic and socialchange. As part of our routinereporting we have written about theeconomic impact of the universitiesin our region – Plymouth, Exeterand the Combined Universities ofCornwall and know theircapabilities well. And they eachhave ambitious and successfulgrowth strategies that influence andshape the regional economy.

Given that we have not yetexperienced the full effects ofpublic spending cuts and therelative decline of local authorities,the pre-eminence of universities inregional economic development isassured for years to come.

I have witnessed inrecent years one of thebiggest changes ofinfluence towardscreating the conditionsfor enterprise: theemerging dominance ofuniversities over localauthorities.

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Facing the challenges of a rapidly changing worldBarry Sheerman MP, Labour and Co-operative member of Parliament for Huddersfield

The last enquiry my Education andSkills Select Committee undertookon Higher Education was one thatattempted to evaluate theinternational market in the sectorand the UK's ability to remain aleading global player in anincreasingly competitiveenvironment. We concluded thatour universities were robustlycompetitive and widely respectedand admired, but that there was noroom for complacency in a fastdeveloping situation.

Imprinted on my memory is aconversation with a senior ChineseAcademic who had worked inBritain. He was deeply envious ofthe breadth and depth of ouruniversity system and what hecalled our “higher educationculture”. He asked me what Ithought would be the impact ifovernight our universities ceasedto exist. A nightmare scenarioindeed, but one, which forced ourCommittee to think very seriouslyabout the increasingly vitalstrategic role of the sector in 21stCentury Britain.

How essential are our universitiesto our towns, cities and regions

and to our country? The stats takeus a little way towards the answer,133 universities, 170,000 directlyemployed staff and an expenditureof £25billion. This however tells usvery little about the huge impactthese institutions have on thecommunities in which they sit.They are frequently, as in my ownconstituency, the single largestemployer in the town and theirspend in the local area and in thewider region is significant indeed.

Direct and indirect employment issubstantial, but we should notunderrate the high skills ofuniversity staff and the impact this

has on the local economy andsocial fabric of the community.Some aspects of the influence of auniversity may be less easy tocalibrate, but it is clear that well ledinstitutions are major players in theeconomic and social affairs of theregion and are often relied uponnot only for information,knowledge and wisdom, but alsofor strategic leadership and much more.

To set this wider role in context wemust see the HE sector in the lightof the rapidly changing world welive in. Globally the fruits ofinnovation, technology, informationand communication have meant adramatic decline in the numbersemployed in manufacturing. The UK remains a wealthy country,with the sixth largest economymeasured by GDP, seventh bypurchasing power parity and hasthe third biggest economy inEurope. However like most of ourcompetitors automation has meantwe require far fewer people toproduce the goods we need. Thejob opportunities still exist inmanufacturing but the demand isincreasingly for those with very

high levels of skills. The role ofuniversities is critical in providingthe high quality personnel vital tothe success of major employers aswell as the increasingly importantemerging small and medium start-up businesses.

As the economy develops andrapidly transforms itself we lookincreasingly to the universities tohelp us understand these changes,what exactly is happening? Whatchallenges do we now face? Howdo we overcome them? In thehealth sector alone the changingdemographic, longer life and newtreatments and technologiesdemand the highest of medicalmanagement and technical skills.In the broader educational spherewe need highly trainedprofessionals at every stage fromearly years through to school,college and beyond. Health andeducation are traditionally viewedas part of a broad public sectorand the turbulence in themanufacturing sector is replicatedhere too. The lines between publicand private are in flux and it is tothe university that we will look toprovide the expertise we need.

So here we are with universitiescentral not only to understanding achanging world economy but alsooperating in an environmentwhere power and influence isshifting before our eyes from West

to East. This is a world threatenedby international financial instability,global warming and climatechange and by unprecedentedglobal population mobility. Ouruniversity community now has aclear responsibility not only tohelp us understand the problemsbut also to find the appropriatelevels of response.

These challenges are what wehave to live with. They are notremote from our communities andregions and they will shape ourlives increasingly urgently. Withoutthe help of our universities wehave no hope of surviving andthriving. To tackle the ghastlyregional imbalance of our countrywhere London and the South Eastincreasingly resemble a differentmore affluent country we needhigh quality research to inform ourpoliticians. In order to identify therelevant skills required to supportgreen shoot industry, to givesupport to SME's that struggle togrow and to identify and supportentrepreneurs we need ouruniversities more than ever.

At the same time we rely on thesesame universities to ensure that weeducate our people to be fully-fledged responsible citizens fit toplay an active part in a maturedemocracy. Much has been madein recent months of the concept oflocalism and the Big Society.

Without a leading role for ouruniversities I see little chance ofachieving a meaningful realisationof these goals, or for the good andjust society we might also aspire to.

The big question then remains. Is the sector too complacent, andis it fit for purpose? Like allsystems some elements of HigherEducation, are better than othersand we would be foolish to deny it. Some are reluctant to commitwholeheartedly to the activestrategic leadership role that Ibelieve their communities andtheir regions deserve and must do better. The sector as a whole isindeed robustly competitive butthere remains a clear imperativefor more creative partnerships,strategic thinking and relentlesseffort.

Barry Sheerman MP is theLabour and Co-operativemember of Parliament forHuddersfield. He currentlyChairs the Skills Commission,has extensive experience ineducational issues and played akey role in education policy anddebates.

So here we are withuniversities central notonly to understanding achanging worldeconomy but alsooperating in anenvironment wherepower and influence isshifting before our eyesfrom West to East.

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Universities and their role in regional economies – a local authority perspectiveTony Williams, Executive Director, Bournemouth Borough Council

When I first accepted the UniversityAlliance’s invitation to write anopinion piece on BournemouthUniversity’s contribution to ourregional economy, I did so withgreat enthusiasm. After all, everyoneknows that universities make animportant contribution to their localarea; it’s just a question ofquantifying it.

In the end that part wasn’t toodifficult either. At BournemouthBorough Council we endeavour towork in collaboration andpartnership with the University,forming a relationship that we knowhas both local and national benefits.The Council and the University have

been working togetherconstructively for a number of yearsnow, and during that time we’veamassed much data and somerather impressive statistics.

For example, Gross Value Added(GVA) data shows that the total thatBournemouth University (BU)contributed to the economies ofBournemouth, Poole andChristchurch in 2007 was some£166 million, and that figureincreases to more than £172 millionif capital spending is included.But the importance of the Universityto the regional economy goes wellbeyond income generation. Ourrecent Local Enterprise Partnership(LEP) brief included as a prioritythe need to provide high tech, highvalue job opportunities. TheUniversity plays a key role intraining and preparing graduates tomeet these demands and helpingus to achieve the objectives of theLEP - employment data from 2009-2010 shows that almost half of all BUgraduates go on to work in theSouth West.

And there are plenty of graduates inthe pipeline. This year a total of16,868 students are registered at BU

and their importance to the localand regional economy is wellunderstood. It is estimated that in2007 BU students spent more than£88 million in the local economyand more than £98.5 million in theSouth West region.

Of course a large part of theUniversity’s economic contributioncomes from its staff. In a county likeDorset made up of predominantlymicro businesses and SMEs - themajority of which employ fewerthan five people - the Universitystands out as a major employer. Thisyear they have a workforce of 1422full time equivalents who work, live,eat and play in the region. This isgood news for the Council as wellas the wider area; in addition to themoney spent on accommodation,food and leisure, the University’sstaff also contribute to themaintenance of local facilities andinfrastructure.

The University’s influence isn’trestricted to the local area though. It is part of a network that includestwenty-four accredited languageschools, together with universitiesand colleges in the region, that offercourses to overseas students. This

network brings approximately £200million into the local economy andserves to raise the internationalprofile of the area. The Universityalso has significant independentglobal reach and is attracting anincreasing number of students fromoverseas. In 2010/11 there are 1823international students. The Councilwelcomes the international flavourand perspective that these studentsbring to the local area, and both theUniversity’s international graduatesand their families play an importantrole in our local tourism industry.

The more I reflect on theimportance of BournemouthUniversity in our regional economythe more significant the picturebecomes; there is so much morethat can’t be quantified. Our closeworking relationship means that theinterests of BU are closely alignedwith those of our Council and thetown. Bournemouth is committed tothe green agenda, particularlywhen it comes to employment andbusiness opportunities, and we

have set ourselves the goal of beingthe right place to nurture a greenknowledge economy. BournemouthUniversity has established a GreenKnowledge Economy centre and weare collaborating and partneringwherever possible to bring newdevelopments to the fore.

In addition to the role of internationalgraduates, the University also makesa major contribution to the town’stourism industry by leading on theproposed Hotel School, thedevelopment of the Tourist NationalBusiness Academy, and attending theCouncil's Tourism & EconomyOverview & Scrutiny panel.

This year the University launched itsnew Vision, ‘BU2018: Creating,Sharing, Inspiring’, which aims tocreate a unique fusion of excellenteducation, research and professionalpractice, with students at its heart.This resonates strongly withBournemouth Borough Council; theUniversity is very much at the heartof our town.

Tony Williams is Executive Director of Environment andEconomy in Bournemouth borough council. Tony is responsible for a range of areasincluding economic development.

Our close workingrelationship means thatthe interests of BU areclosely aligned withthose of our Council andthe town.

The Council and theUniversity have beenworking togetherconstructively for anumber of years now,and during that timewe’ve amassed muchdata and some ratherimpressive statistics.

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From Victorian mills to factories of ideasSir Patrick Stewart, Chancellor, University of Huddersfield

My home turf is the West Riding ofYorkshire and during my boyhood itwas a very different place. In termsof sights, sounds and even smells itwas much more obviouslyindustrial, one of the greatmanufacturing regions of the Northof England. My life went in acompletely different direction, ofcourse, but I still think of myself as alad from a hard-working part of theworld where we made things for a living.

Nowadays, it is more common todescribe the West Riding andregions like it as post-industrial.Most of the mines and the mills haveclosed and the factories have beenflattened to make way forsuperstores.

But that is not the whole picture, byany means. The fact is that Yorkshire,in common with most of Britain’sindustrialised regions, can still boasta great many successful andinnovative firms. And to be moresuccessful, they need to becomeeven more innovative in order tocompete in the global market andmake their contribution to therebalancing of the regional and thenational economy, which we all

recognise – whatever our politicaloutlook – as being vital to our futureprosperity.

So if innovation is the key, where willit come from? The R and Ddepartments of companies play acrucial role, of course, and there willalways be inspired individuals withthe vision to develop new productsor solve difficult problems.

But the universities of Britain, staffedby expert researchers in every fieldof science and technology, andequipped with state-of-the-artfacilities, are surely our best sourcefor innovation and therefore theindustrial growth and the

employment that comes with it.

As Chancellor of the University ofHuddersfield, I never cease to befascinated and amazed by theamount of expertise that we have onthe premises. It ranges frominformatics to nanotechnology,precision engineering to organicchemistry, from biofuels to braketechnology, from logistics to particlephysics, from diagnosticengineering to product design...

Even if I stretched that paragraph todouble its length, I would still beafraid of leaving something out, so Ihave given a flavour only.

We have a great many modernbuildings on our campus, but manyof our researchers are housedwithin specially-adapted Victorianmills. They are handsome structuresand they are still factories – factoriesof ideas. They are certainly not ivorytowers, because the scientists andengineers behind those stone wallsare continually engaged with thereal world of modern industry.There are many instances at theUniversity of Huddersfield of ourresearch groups forming closepartnerships with leading firms,

solving problems for them andhelping to develop new productsand processes.

One example from many is a unitnamed IPOS, which stands forInnovative Physical OrganicSolutions. Housed in a superblyequipped new suite of labs, it hasbeen awarded a multi-millionpound grant by the EuropeanRegional Development Fund, and akey condition is that the unit worksclosely with at least 50 firms in theYorkshire and Humber region. Many other instances ofpartnerships between University ofHuddersfield researchers andindustrial companies could becited. And while I am naturallyanxious to stress the dynamism ofmy own institution, every othermember of University Alliance isseeking and forming suchpartnerships. It seems obvious,therefore, that centres of excellencein higher education have a centralrole to play in regional and nationalgrowth.

I have stressed the research role ofuniversities. But their otherdimension, of course, is theeducational one. It goes withoutsaying that unless we teach andtrain the next generation of expertsin every field, from science andtechnology to arts and humanities,then regional growth will bestopped in its tracks. But it is also

worth emphasising that even whilethey are engaged in theirundergraduate or postgraduatestudies, students on virtually allcourses at Huddersfield areexpected to undertake workplacements and internships. Thisnot only gives the students a feel foremployment, but in many casesthey can make a stimulatingcontribution to the companieswhich they join.

So it seems undeniable thatuniversities are important enginesfor growth in the regions they serve.This is nothing new. If we trace theroots of the University ofHuddersfield, for example, we findthat they originate in nineteenth-century educational initiativesdesigned to meet the needs of localindustry. Today those needs aremore complex and diverse anduniversities are therefore moreimportant than ever.

My workplace is the stage and myindustry is the film industry. Theyboth make a significant contributionto the economy and the culture ofBritain and its regions. And it is vitalthat we continue to train and nurturetalented actors, writers, musicians,artists, designers and historians, ofcourse.

But creativity exists in every field ofendeavour. As I write, building workhas begun on a new structure at the

University of Huddersfield. Namedthe Enterprise and InnovationCentre, it will cost some £12 millionand more than half of the fundinghas come from the EuropeanRegional Development Fund. It willbe an exciting building and willserve as a space where innovativeentrepreneurs, ambitious smallcompanies and large, establishedfirms will be able to forge closerlinks than ever with the researchexpertise and technical facilities ofthe host university.

It will be of immense practicalbenefit to the locality and the regionbut it will also serve as a powerfulsymbol of the way in whichuniversities and enterprise canunite and work together to achieveeconomic growth.

Sir Patrick Stewart has had adistinguished career in theatre,film and television. He isChancellor of the University ofHuddersfield where he is alsoProfessor of Performing Arts.

It goes without sayingthat unless we teach and train the next generation of experts in every field, from science and technologyto arts and humanities,then regional growthwill be stopped in itstracks.

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The university in its place

I have been researching universitiesin Britain and around the world forover 30 years. Projects have focusedon topics such as the links betweenuniversities and the labour market,how quality and standards aremaintained, how effectivegovernance is achieved, and on theimpacts of universities on otherparts of society – the economy,social equity, social cohesion,political and social change.

In this short piece, I want to drawparticularly on one current and onerecent research project. The currentone is an international projectfunded by the Economic and SocialResearch Council (ESRC) on‘Change in Networks, HigherEducation and KnowledgeSocieties’ which is part of a largerresearch programme of theEuropean Science Foundation on‘Higher Education and SocialChange’. The recently completedproject was also funded by theESRC as part of a programme ofresearch on the impact of highereducation on regional economies. It was entitled ‘Higher Educationand Regional Transformation: socialand cultural perspectives (HEART)’.

A forthcoming book based on theproject shares the title of this piece:‘The University in its Place’.

In the case study approach adoptedby the HEART project, we foundconsiderable differences in theuniversities we investigated; inpopulation, social context and localand regional settings. This is not tosay that some generalisations arenot possible, but considerable careneeds to be taken in making them.In my experience, such care canoften be absent in policy debates.

The regional economic impact ofuniversities can be both direct andindirect. On the former, universitiesclearly play a part in up-skilling andre-skilling local workforces, but it isdangerous to see them as onlydoing so for their immediate region.Universities play an important rolein enhancing the mobility of labour,across regions and, increasinglyinternationally. The regional impactin terms of the local labour force isoften more apparent in the publicsector than in the private sector,with particularly ‘high tech’ parts ofthe latter increasingly recruitinginternationally. Some universitiessee their major role in lifelong

learning and re-skilling existingworkers rather than in initialpreparation for the labour market.

A second important area ofuniversity impact is regional ‘image’and ability to attract inwardinvestment. For both universitiesand their regions, ‘image’ ispotentially both enhancing andconstraining. A poor image of placelimits a university’s ability to attractstudents from outside the region.And a poor image of its universitylimits the benefits which can accrueto the region from that university.Image in this context should not beconfused with crude league tables

which almost completely neglectthe rich diversity of universitiesacross the sector.

Image is multi-faceted, andincludes the physical impact on theimmediate environment,involvement in cultural ventures(both high and popular culture) andthrough the presence and activitiesof students themselves. Universitiesalso have a strategic impact on theirregions through partnership/development opportunities withagencies concerned with regionalregeneration. Many universityleaders play an important regionalrole through their membership oflocal boards and committees,frequently acting as a ‘neutral andobjective’ voice among competinglocal interest groups.

Universities differ in the nature andlevel of their regional engagement.Some are more internationally-focussed and some more regionallyfocussed, but research suggeststhat most universities combine amixture of global and local agendaswith considerable differences in thebalance between the two. In manyuniversities, a rhetoric ofengagement is not dissociated fromthe discourse on employability.Their discourses and activitiesaround community support, civicengagement and active citizenshipalso seem more explicit and verydiverse, reflecting the constraints

and opportunities of particularregional contexts. These universitiesalso tend to have a self-assignedmission of cultural regeneration(raising aspirations, entrepreneurialculture), potentially bringing a‘transformational’ potential to the region.

That said, the local and the globalfunctions of universities should notbe regarded as being in conflict.One of the key regional functionsthat universities play lies in ‘openingup’ relatively isolated communitiesto wider influences, and to makingvisible the riches and attractionslocated in and around the region.As commented to me by oneuniversity Vice-Chancellor, “whatany developing region needs is atleast one successful football teamand one successful university!”

Finally, a touch of realism is alsoneeded about the impact ofuniversities. As with alldevelopmental interventions, therecan be winners and losers. Thus,university widening participationactivities tend to provide socialmobility opportunities for the fewwithout necessarily alteringpatterns of inequality that affect themany. In sub-regions with severalhigher education providers, a socialstratification of institutions may maponto and reinforce wider patterns ofinequality.

However, by its contribution toregional economic developmentand by increasing localemployment and consumptionlevels, a university may bringadvantages to all within its sub-region. By their impact on the localeconomy and labour market,universities may be changing whothe ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ are withoutnecessarily impacting on overalllevels of inequality and relativedisadvantage. But we have founduniversities that see their role intackling long-term,intergenerational inequalities. They seek to be ‘open’ to all bybroadening notions of ‘access’beyond course enrolments bringingknowledge, expertise and facilitiesto all members of the community.

John Brennan is Director of theCentre for Higher EducationResearch and Information andProfessor of Higher EducationResearch at the OpenUniversity. A sociologist bytraining, he has beenresearching universities, inBritain and around the world,for over 30 years.

Professor John Brennan, Director of the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information, Open University Business School

One of the key regionalfunctions thatuniversities play lies in‘opening up’ relativelyisolated communities towider influences, and tomaking visible theriches and attractionslocated in and aroundthe region.

Universities are both part of a region’s history and itsfuture. Often closely linked to the region’s industriallegacy, universities are in a unique position to build onthis heritage but also to drive adaption, change, renewaland regeneration within the regional economy to openup new horizons.

Change agents: starting, growing and supporting enterprise

25

2726

Fulfilling the potential of universities to drive economic growthSir Tim Wilson, Chair of Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership

The English university sector isfacing huge changes during thenext 24 months. After two decadesof relative stability in terms of thegovernment’s relationship with thesector, we are about to experiencea seismic shift in that relationship.This should not surprise anyone; for a governance structure tosurvive for two decades in a volatilepolitical environment is almostunparalleled. But stability ingovernance disguises majorchanges in purpose and role.

Two decades ago universities werearguably at the fringe of educationalpolicy; a comfortable place ofacademic autonomy and freedom.But the world has changed. Now, inthe globally competitive 21st

century, universities are at the veryheart of economic and social policy.Intellectual power and high levelskills are non-negotiable in aprosperous modern society anduniversities are the primary agentsin delivering these agendas. A thriving knowledge economydepends upon its universities inthree critical dimensions; theapplication and exploitation ofresearch capability, the enterpriseand entrepreneurial culture that isdeveloped amongst its students,and the applicability of theknowledge and skills of graduatescontributing to economicprosperity. All three have evolvedthrough a growing degree ofbusiness/university collaboration.

We can trace back the change inpolicy on university/businessinteraction to the Dearing report(1997). In this century, the Lambertreview of university businesspartnerships (2003) identifiedconsiderable good practice but alsoindicated the distance that had to betravelled if the nation was to fullybenefit from the potential of itsuniversities. The Sainsbury Race tothe Top report (2007) further

emphasised progress andhighlighted the potential for thefuture if we could embracecollaboration in a meaningful andsustained manner. In recent yearsthe Technology Strategy Board hastaken a major influence by fundingnear market research both ingeneric themes and in support ofspecific company development.HEFCE has an established andconsolidated funding stream thathas gone beyond the creation ofcapacity to engage with business,and rewards success. The ResearchCouncils now include impact as ameasure of value and, critically, theresearch assessment exercise isbeing replaced by a new modelwhich will include assessment of theimpact of research, a factor that willmaterially affect future funding andhence future research investmentdecisions.

Many universities no longermodestly hide the impact of theirresearch, they promote andcelebrate it. The amount ofcollaborative research between UKbusiness and UK universities hasgrown dramatically; and many of theobstacles presented by intellectual

property barriers have beenremoved by innovative andcollaborative thinking.

Perhaps the best measure ofprogress is that many in the USAnow look to the UK for goodpractice; a reversal of the situation'pre- Lambert'. But we arescratching the surface of what ispossible. Structural weaknessesremain. There has been nocomprehensive business-ledorganisation that ensuredconnectivity between localeconomic development anduniversities; between wealthcreating organisations and theinnovation and skills supply chainthat is provided by universities; until now.

Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP)are designed as business-ledorganisations with agendas that arecongruent with many universityoutputs. They have the potential tobe key players in business-university relationships; to leveragethe strengths, capabilities andbrands of universities to theeconomic benefit of their locality. If LEPs are able to consolidate thebusiness voice within their areas,then this will provide an efficient,regular and accessiblecommunication channel betweenuniversities and the local businesscommunity; something that isnotoriously difficult at the moment.

The ability of a university to presentits portfolio of services and itsrange of skills and knowledgethrough one recognised andauthoritative channel would bring avery significant advance in potentialcollaboration, to the further benefitof economic growth.

But necessary change is not limitedto representation of the businesscommunity. For universities to playtheir full roles in economicdevelopment, further culturalchange is needed on ourcampuses. For those universitiesthat are committed to businesssupport, it means establishing acampus culture where it is not onlyacceptable to work with businessexploiting research and intellectualstrengths, it is expected and it iscelebrated. It means building acampus culture where it is not onlyacceptable to have spin-out andspin-in companies; it is the norm. It means building a campus culturewhere enterprise andentrepreneurism amongst studentsand staff is not only permitted; it isencouraged, supported andchampioned. Only in that way willwe establish UK universities asworld leaders in business supportand interaction.

However, this is insufficient ifuniversities are not recognisedwithin their own communities asagents for change. Therein lies a

further fundamental challenge; localrecognition. Has the population of auniversity city/town any idea of theworld class research beingundertaken within their community,or of the economic impact andemployment effects of collaborationbetween their local university andlocal companies? Has the Universitysector persuaded every MP of thevitality and value of our universities?Have we persuaded the populationas a whole; why isn’t the mediasaturated with stories aboutresearch and innovation emanatingfrom our campuses?

Universities are facing a period ofhuge change, of turbulence anduncertainty; such times bring hugechallenges, but also hugeopportunities. If our universities areto fulfil their potential, it is time forthem to meet the challenge ofbeing engines for economicgrowth; it is time for UK universitiesto take their place as world leadersin business support and interaction.

Sir Tim Wilson, former Vice-Chancellor of the University ofHertfordshire, is a strongadvocate of the role ofuniversities in economicdevelopment and is currentlyleading a government reviewinto university-industrycollaboration. He is also Chairof the Hertfordshire LocalEnterprise Partnership

Local EnterprisePartnerships (LEP) aredesigned as business-led organisations withagendas that arecongruent with manyuniversity outputs.

2928

From Dandy to digital: universities transforming regional economiesSir Richard Lambert, Chancellor of the University of Warwick and former Director-General of CBI

A generation ago, Nottingham was amajor manufacturing centre. It boasted the world’s largestbicycle factory, with 11,000employees, and was home to otherbig engineering companies as wellas makers of textile, tobacco andconsumer products. And itsuniversity had around 8,000students.

Today, most of the manufacturinghas disappeared, to be replaced bya number of large companies in theservices sector, and the city’suniversities have around 40,000students. They make a largecontribution to the regionaleconomy, both as big employersand through the spending power oftheir students. And they make atleast as large an indirectcontribution as leading centres forinnovation and collaborativeresearch and as the source of highlyskilled graduates for the regionaland national jobs market. And fromtheir position at the heart of theregion’s cultural and intellectual life,they make the city an attractiveplace in which to live and work. This story is repeated all across theUK, and helps to explain the central

role that universities play today indriving economic growth across theregions and nations. One of themost positive features of the past 20years has been the renewed energyand vigour of so many of our cities,a process which has been shapedin good measure by the universitysystem. While other parts of theeconomy have experienced wildlyvolatile times, the higher educationsector has provided a stable andgrowing base of economic activity.And universities are set to becomean even more significant engine forgrowth in the future - provided theyare not fettered by government redtape or inconsistent policymaking.

It is obvious that the rapid growth instudent numbers has had adramatic impact on some towns andcities: one striking example isLoughborough, which the universitydominates. But beyond the sheerscale of their activities, theircontribution to regional growth canbe grouped under four mainheadings.

First, they have helped to rebalanceeconomies which have had to faceradical changes in their businessinfrastructure. For example,

following sharp declines inaerospace manufacturing in its area,Hertfordshire University set out withthe specific goal of educating youngpeople to meet the needs of newemployers in the region – and hasachieved real success in thisrespect.

Second, they are in some regionsjust about the only institutions whereinvestment in science is takingplace. Given the links that existbetween research intensity andeconomic prosperity, theimportance of this activity canhardly be overstated. An examplehere is Yorkshire and Humber,where research spending by

business is well below the nationalaverage, and the government putsvery little into research fundingoutside the university sector. By contrast, the research-activeuniversities in the region are amongthe heaviest investors in science inthe UK.

Universities’ contribution tosupporting innovation andentrepreneurial activity, especially inthe technology sector, comes thirdon the list. Anyone who visitstechnology-based firms in NorthernIreland will quickly realise theextraordinary role that Queen’sUniversity has played in generatingentrepreneurial talent across theprovince. Companies like Randox,the medical diagnostics business,and Lagan Technologies came fromQueen’s and have created highvalue jobs in an area that badlyneeds them. Queen’s ranks at thetop of the league tables for therevenues and jobs created by itsspin-out companies.

In some cities, the transformationbrought about by successfuluniversities is immediately visible.My favourite example is Dundee: I am old enough to remember whenit was famous for being the home ofthree nineteenth century industries– jam, jute and journalism, and notmuch else. But over the past twodecades, the research excellence inlife sciences at Dundee University

has attracted some of the world’sgreat pharmaceutical companies,like GSK and Pfizer, to the region. In the same city, Abertay Universityhas become a hub for theelectronics games industry: take alook on its website at the video Dareto be Digital to see what this canmean.

Readers of Dandy and the Beanowill be relieved to know that at leastone of its old industries – journalism– still flourishes, with the longestablished publishing houseD.C.Thomson making waves in thedigital world. Subscribers to Dandycan now search online for DoctorDoom’s Whoopee Cushion ofDoom.

Fourth, the university system helpsto balance the extreme differencesin economic wellbeing that existacross the UK. For example, theNorth East remains one of thepoorest parts of the country.According to research byUniversities UK, the region’s HEinstitutions provided 13,715 full-timeequivalent jobs at the last count, andsupported a further 14,683, mostlyin the North East, making them acritical part of the region’seconomic infrastructure. Their totalrevenues amounted to nearly £1bnin 2007-08, with an additional£1.3bn being generated by knock-on effects in other industries.

On the other side of the country, the merger between ManchesterUniversity and UMIST was explicitlydesigned to counterbalance the so-called golden triangle of Oxford,Cambridge and London by creatinga world class research-intensiveuniversity in the North West ofEngland. And on a much moremodest scale, anyone who visitsbusiness people in the city ofLincoln will quickly be made awareof the impact their new university –it was created in 2001 – has had oneconomic activity and civic pride.Among other things, it has created3,000 new jobs, helped to doublethe local economic growth rates,and supported dozens of newbusinesses.

The message of all this is that thefuture economic wellbeing of the UK will depend on its capacity todevelop innovative new productsand services and to increase therate of productivity growth from thepresent lacklustre levels. Researchexcellence and a highly skilledworkforce are essential componentsof both these requirements. For allthese reasons, the UK’s universitysystem will play a very large part inits future economic success.

Sir Richard Lambert is theChancellor of the University ofWarwick and the former Director-General of CBI. He previouslychaired the Lambert review ofBusiness-University collaboration.

The message of all this isthat the future economicwellbeing of the UK willdepend on its capacity todevelop innovative newproducts and servicesand to increase the rateof productivity growthfrom the presentlacklustre levels.

3130

Supporting the economic recovery through partnershipJames Ramsbotham, Chief Executive of the North East Chambers of Commerce

With the recovery from globalrecession still very fragile, it isessential that links betweenuniversities and businesses continueto strengthen. For businesses theselinks act as a catalyst for greaterbusiness innovation, provide abroader perspective on thechallenges and opportunitiesindustries and individual firms faceand deliver our future leaders.

North East universities occupy acentral role within our regionaleconomy. The contribution of localand international students and thosewho choose to work in the regionafter completing their studies helpsshape the North East’s economy andits culture. Clearly our universitiesalso play a pivotal role in training thefuture workforce through theiracademic provision and bycollaborating closely withbusinesses.

Teesside University – recently namedUniversity of the Year for itsengagement with business - hascapitalised on its digital media andtechnology expertise to create athriving cluster of digital and creativebusinesses in the Tees Valley throughthe DigitalCity project. The Institute

of Digital Innovation (IDI) providesspecialist facilities, mentoring andfinancial support for graduates tomake their digital or creativebusiness ideas a reality. Byengaging with industry, the IDI cantarget knowledge and skills gapsidentified by employers as well asproviding a regional, national andinternational network to help newbusinesses form contacts and grow.The other delivery organisation,DigitalCity Business, aims to makethe North East the best place fordigital media, technology orcreative businesses by promotingthe benefits of location in the TeesValley to all enterprises fromentrepreneurs to establishedbusinesses.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships(KTP) are also used by TeessideUniversity to work collaborativelywith businesses towards achievingspecific workplace objectives. Thiscollaboration enables businesses toaccess university skills andexpertise via a graduate. Utilityprovider Northumbrian Waterbenefited from a KTP with Teessideto design and implement a singlechange management process toimprove the efficiency of

Northumbrian Water’s informationservices department.

To meet business requirements,Teesside has developed moreflexible Knowledge ExchangeInternships (KEI). Theseprogrammes provide a route forSMEs to benefit from universityexpertise in a more flexiblepackage. Teesside has beennominated as a preferred partner ofCustomer First UK and hassupported businesses to achievethe same national standard incustomer service excellencethrough KEI projects.

Teesside’s vision of contributing tothe success of the regional

economy has been realised throughthe collaborative DigitalCity andKTP projects. By supporting newbusinesses, encouraging others tolocate in the region and facilitatingthe dissemination of academicknowledge and expertise amongregional employers, Teesside hasadded positive value to North Easteconomic development.

This commitment to working closelywith local business isn’t limited toTeesside. Another great example isNorthumbria University’spartnership with Esh Group, a largeconstruction business in CountyDurham. Esh employees studying atNorthumbria deliver seminars tostudents providing industryperspectives on academic theory.Lecturers work with Esh to shapecontent in line with the curriculum.Northumbria students also benefitfrom contact with other Esh staff andthose within Esh’s supply chainincluding interviews to informstudent research which can bolsterthe impact and relevance of studentoutputs. These opportunities forstudents to interact withprofessionals help strengthen thefuture workforce by countering thecommon complaint that graduatesdo not possess sufficient industryknowledge. To my mind, thiscollaboration demonstratesNorthumbria’s dedication toachieving its corporate strategy tostrengthen the diversity and

economic success of the North East.

Whilst both Teesside andNorthumbria demonstrate howuniversities can contribute to thesuccess of the region, barriers existto prevent universities occupying agreater role in regional growth. Thecomplexity of university structuresmake it difficult for businesses toengage with university services, forexample, forming universitycontacts was identified as a barrierin the North East Chambers ofCommerce (NECC) skills report(Autumn 2011). By establishing aninternal team within the universitycapable of fielding businessenquiries, businesses would find iteasier to approach and engageuniversity services. Greaterdialogue needs to be established toensure that universities areproviding the skills required bylocal businesses – Teesside andNorthumbria’s successfulcollaborative projects demonstratethe success of such dialogue.

In July, the Government publishedthe White Paper, Higher Education:Students at the Heart of the System,with bold aims to strengthen ourworld renowned Higher Educationsector. The Paper includes welcomeactions including a review ofuniversity-industry collaborationthat will inform the future researchand innovation strategy. Additionallythere were calls for greater

partnership working to strengthenthe provision of enterprise skills atuniversity level as well as improvingcareers advisory services through aquality standard. NECC welcomesthese moves to review collaborationand the commitment to strengtheningemployability skills, both of whichhave been identified by businessesas issues. However, strengtheninguniversity-business connections mustbe aimed at supporting growth andmust not be used as a facade forshifting the burden of funding tobusinesses.

There is a clear role for the NorthEast’s world-class universities to workwith businesses and improve skilllevels and regional growth.Workforce skill levels are a criticalcontributor to the success of anybusiness, and many within the NorthEast suffer from skills shortages -despite the increased levels ofunemployment that are a feature ofrecent economic turmoil. Byimplementing a few simple reformsto increase the ease of interactionbetween universities and businesses,successful collaboration such asTeesside and NorthumbriaUniversities’ projects can become the norm.

James Ramsbotham is ChiefExecutive of the North EastChamber of Commerce, whorepresent the interests of its 4,500members that collectively employa third of the region's workers.

For businesses theselinks act as a catalyst forgreater businessinnovation, provide abroader perspective onthe challenges andopportunities industriesand individual firms faceand deliver our futureleaders.

3332

Creating connections in Media CityProfessor Brian Longhurst, Director, FIRM, MediaCityUK

I suspect that if asked about MediaCity, Salford and Manchester, thefirst response of a majority would bealong the lines of ‘is that the placethat all those BBC employees don’twant to move to from London’. Thisis not surprising, as the dominantmedia discourse has been verymuch along these lines. However,Media City in Salford is a hugelysignificant development in anumber of ways and we very earlydecided that it was essential to havea strong base there.

Media City is an extensiveoperation by the Peel Group atSalford Quays. Peel controls a 200acre site, of which phase one hasbeen developed. This is the newhome for a number of BBCdepartments including Sport,Children’s, Radio 5 Live and FutureMedia and Technology. In addition,the site includes an extensive studioblock under the control of SIS, and aproduction facility, the Pie Factory.ITV will begin to move on to the sitein 2012 and are constructing a newset for Coronation Street there. TheUniversity of Salford has rentedspace, under a 25 year leasearrangement that will open at the

beginning of the academic year in2011. Media City is next to theLowry Theatre and the Imperial WarMuseum North. Old Trafford, thehome of Manchester United is ashort walk from the site.

In 2007, the University of Salfordrecognised the immense potentialof Media City and took the decisionto lease 100,000 square feet ofspace over four floors of a buildingat its heart. We are located next toBBC Future Media and Technologyand ITV will be moving in directlyabove us in the same building.From 2011 we will be teaching 1500students at Media City across 39programmes at undergraduate andpostgraduate taught levels. Up to200 staff will work there at differenttimes of the week.

We have taken a particularapproach to our activities at MediaCity. We have brought togethertaught programmes from across theuniversity. The majority come fromour schools of Computing, Scienceand Engineering and Media, Musicand Performance, though overall sixof our ten schools are representedthere. Moreover, we have adoptedan open plan working system for all

staff including academics. We havea number of specialist spaces withinour building including a digitalmedia performance laboratory,television and radio studios, anextensive journalism suite and aspace we call the EGG, which isbest quickly described as a highlytechnologised living research andcommunication laboratory.

Our programmes at Media City fallinto four broad areas: Broadcasting;Future Digital Technology; Games,Interactive and Pervasive Media;and Future Digital Technology andDigital Design. We also have a‘Research Hotel’ within our building,

where researchers from ouruniversity and others will be locatednext to visitors and partners fromindustry. Our activities are led by auniversity Media City Director anda Media City Academic Director;the former with lengthy industryand commercial experience andthe later with over 20 years ofacademic experience.

Our approach is thereforepredicated on a number of specificideas about the role of universitiesin society and the economy. First,that any work from a university hasto be interdisciplinary; second, thatfacilities have to be designed anddelivered to produce the very beststudent experience; third, that thestudents in a site like Media Cityare likely to form an extensivesource of talent for otherparticipants and partnerships;fourth, that the students should beconnected with industry partners inas many ways as possible to affirmthe integration of higher educationwith wider activities.

Moreover, we are concerned thatour research and developmentactivity partners in sophisticatedways to provide social, economicand community benefit. A goodexample of how this approach isdeveloping is in the researchconsortium, the Framework forInnovation and Research in MediaCity (FIRM), which seeks to tackle

challenges facing the digitalcreative media in the comingdecades through promoting andfacilitating transdisciplinaryresearch and development. The aimis to bridge the communicationsgap between academics andbusinesses to produce national andglobal impacts in the domains oftheory and practice. Anotherexcellent example is the recentlyfunded BBC Centre of Excellence inAudio Research. In each case amulti-university partnership isworking in tandem with the BBC.

Media City is an innovationecosystem. It is very important torecognise that the confluence ofactivity from universities andindustry will produce newunderstandings and new practicesgoing forward. The prize here isthat Media City in working withother developments across thenorth of England should be able togenerate new activities for thebenefit not only of the north but forthe UK globally. For this to happenthere are a number of conditionalfactors. First, universities must adoptan approach that drives openinnovation; second, student talentdevelopment will be at the core ofthat innovation; third, the studentexperience must be of high quality;fourth, research and developmentprojects should be constructed inall ways from day one so that the

relationships between academiaand external partners are ascohesive as possible.

Knowledge economies areunpredictable. Universities are atthe heart of innovation. It isimportant that the role ofuniversities in environments likeMedia City, is not simply seen interms of skills and technologytransfer for the regional economy,undoubtedly important thoughthose are. At least as important, is tomake sure that the right conditionsare created for the creative juices toflow and the innovative creativeconnections to be made withinternational impact. Our approachis rooted in the forward lookingcombination of hard science andtechnology with creative insight andpassion, and on the basis that 21stcentury universities have to workhand in hand in genuine mutuallybeneficial relationships with worldleading companies.

Brian Longhurst is Director ofFIRM (Framework forInnovation and Research inMediaCityUK) and in his role atUniversity of Salford he also hasstrategic responsibility for thedevelopment across theuniversity of media, digitaltechnologies, practices and futures.

Media City is aninnovation ecosystem.It is very important torecognise that theconfluence of activityfrom universities andindustry will producenew understandings andnew practices goingforward.

3534

Networks, sneak-outs and reservoirs of expertiseDavid Docherty, Chief Executive, Council for Industry and Higher Education

The modern wealth of regions willflow from their intellectual capital.Tomorrow’s successful enterprisecities, regenerated regions andinnovation towns will only be sobecause of an endless flow oftalented graduates and restiveresearchers tied into knowledge-intensive businesses based orworking in the locality. As GordonMoore, co-founder of Intel said ofthe Silicon Valley phenomenon –‘The most important contributionStanford makes to Silicon Valley is toreplenish the intellectual pool everyyear with new graduate students.’

Students and researchers form thepersonal, business and socialnetworks vital to the entrepreneurialenergy of a region. They give itidentity, share ideas, business-plansand battle-stories, attract cluster-capital when they are recognised asa centre of growing expertise and,when successful themselves,become the investment communityof the future. In HSBC ‘s recentreport, The Future of Business: TheChanging Face of Business in 21stCentury Britain they found that thatstrong personal networks (26%)were more important to business

leaders than financial backing(18%), or even having a goodbusiness idea (16%). And that onein three business leaders spendstime out of the office consulting forother firms, volunteering or workingin academia. These networks arethe new localism when it comes toeconomic regeneration.

Dr. Hermann Hauser, co-founder ofthe hugely-successful AmadeusCapital, talks of the power of ‘sneak-outs’ – i.e. businesses formed bygraduates, but not based onuniversity IP - as being the vitalcomponent of regional success.Stanford measures itself as much onthe consultancy it offers to suchsneak-outs as it does to spin-outs ormore traditional university-IPtransactions. So irrespective ofwhether policy makers wish to usethe cluster word, or enterprisezones, or economic eco-systems,knowledge-creation, developmentand implementation is the sine quanon of success.

HSBCs report pointed to sevensupercities – Newcastle, Leeds,Liverpool, Brighton, London,Glasgow, Bristol – all of which havehighly-successful universities

committed to re-balancing theeconomies in which their cities arelocated. For example, HSBC notedthat Brighton could “change thetraditional national and regionalpowerbases in the UK because of[its] proximity to the one thing thatdoes not depend on naturalresources: knowledge”. The reportdescribes Brighton as “…thederegulation capital of the UK[where] 82% of entrepreneurs,many based in the so-called MDMAindustries (marketing, design,media and advertising), believe thatregulations and work-relatedlegislation is a threat to their newentrepreneurial activities”…somaking Brighton an “alternativeeconomic and innovationpowerhouse”.

Developing high-qualityprofessional and technical skills are,and always will be a primerequirement of universities, but theinnovative-localism cannot be builton skills alone. Vital regionaleconomies need reservoirs ofexpertise. If a skill can be definedas a repeatable process in apredictable environment, aneconomy built on such narrow

talents, will hardly be suited for therigors of convergence in media,service engineering, gene therapy,nanotech and de-carbonisedmanufacturing necessary forsupercities or, indeed, superanything.

It is time for a new covenantbetween businesses anduniversities that responds actively tothe connected, networking era andthe collective responsibility forgrowth. For example, threeuniversities in the supercities –Glasgow, Bristol and Kings – haveadopted an open-IP relationshipwith business, in which they willmake the vast bulk of their IP freelyavailable to businesses. Building onthis initiative, creating genuinelypowerful entrepreneurial networksthat use cutting edge socialbusiness tools like LinkedIn,Facebook and the Library ofAlexandria is the logical next step.

We must be very careful not tooverlook the roles of majorindustrial businesses co-locatingwithin universities and creating newcultures that break through historicdivisions of the academy andbusiness research. So Jaguar LandRover in Warwick, Boeing inSheffield, Lloyd’s Register inSouthampton, Siemens in Lincoln,and the BBC in Salford are all strongexamples of businesses taking ahard, practical, profit or mission-driven view of universityknowledge and backing it to be asource of major competitiveadvantage. The lessons learned forbig companies and their supplychains about culture and new formsof practice can and should beapplied to smaller businesses asthey scale up.

These examples all build onhistoric regional capability, butequally universities have asignificant role in re-clustering aregion as traditional industries die -as the University of Hertfordshire isdoing with biotech and Abertaysuccessfully did with the gamesindustry. The CIHE is working withBrighton and Sussex universities,the Arts and Humanities ResearchCouncil and two thousand creative,digital and IT (CDIT) businesses inthe Brighton area attached to theWired Sussex network on a projectcalled the Brighton Fuse which

aims to map the drivers of regionalsuccess and initiate major change-management programmes that willprovide a clear evidence base forthe role of universities, but also bethe basis for a tool-kit that otherregions may use.

Regional growth is an immenselycomplex beast, and if there wereeasy policy answers they wouldhave been globally implemented.Instead, we live with complexity. Butin that complexity, one thing shouldbe clear – a university intertwinedin the business DNA of a region isindispensable to any growthstrategy, and we need practical andpolicy focus on maximising it.

David Docherty is ChiefExecutive of the Council ForIndustry and Higher Education,and Chairman of the DigitalTelevision Group, which is theindustry body for digitaltelevision in the UK.

Irrespective of whetherpolicy makers wish touse the cluster word, orenterprise zones, oreconomic eco-systems,knowledge-creation,development andimplementation is thesine qua non of success.

Creating and diffusing research-led innovation

Universities drive new growth areas within theeconomy. As part of a global knowledge network,universities generate, translate and diffuse research-ledinnovation. By exchanging knowledge with businessand enterprise, universities also support its adoptionand exploitation.

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Placing universities at the heart of our innovation systemWill Hutton, Chair of the Big Innovation Centre

Today the UK economy facesunprecedented economicchallenges and real risks to itsprosperity. We have committed to asharp retrenchment in publicspending at a time of highunemployment, sluggish domesticgrowth and an alarmingly unstableglobal economy. The UK can onlyweather these storms if it continuesto develop innovative new productsand services that are valuedinternationally.

The 21st century will witness moretransformative innovation than thelast five centuries put together –such is the pace of scientific andtechnological advance. We need to

find ways to create value from thischange. If we want to maintain ourprosperity and living standards,doing the same as we have in thepast simply won’t be enough. TheUK has worked hard to establishitself as a knowledge economy –our economic growth is now drivenby activities which create value fromexploiting knowledge rather thanphysical assets or manual labour.We have developed many worldclass knowledge enterprises andleading research institutions. But, weknow that true value in a knowledgeeconomy only comes frominnovation – we cannot compete onprice, low-wage labour, or physicalassets. So we need to invest inknowledge and compete byinventing and innovating newproducts, processes and serviceswhich will be adopted by globalconsumers and global businesses.

This presents a real challenge. Weunderstand too little; not just aboutthe innovation processes, but theecosystem of people, businessesand institutions in which risks aretaken and innovation prospers. Withthe stakes so high and no availableresources to gamble on speculativeprojects, this ignorant position has

become untenable. The BigInnovation Centre wants to put this right.

The Big Innovation Centre is a majornew initiative to understand how theUK innovates. Led by business, it isdrawing in the best from theuniversity and research world tobecome a unique British-basednetwork for the promotion ofinnovation and investment. TheCentre seeks to understand how UKinstitutions support and develop thisecosystem. As you might expect,we view universities as a pivotalinstitutional block for our neweconomy. In common with allknowledge generating institutions,not all of their impacts can be fullyquantified but it is clear that theyplay a number of special roleswithin our economy.

The number of graduates weproduce each year has increaseddramatically in recent years,keeping pace with the growingdemand for these skills in theeconomy. Any further growth in oureconomy will create an urgent needto expand our graduate workforce.A degree teaches how to assimilate,analyse, synthesise and

communicate complex information.These are vital skills for anyone whois trying to do something differentor new. A key strand of work at theBig Innovation Centre will be tobetter understand this notion ofskills for innovation – whatcapacities do individuals need tocreate or to apply new knowledge?What mix of skills do innovatorsneed? And how can these be bestdelivered?

Our universities have alsoembraced their role as producers ofnew knowledge and their positionas key links to global innovationnetworks is well understood. Greatsuccesses have been achieved inknowledge transfer. Any businesswhich takes in sandwich yearplacements or sponsors MBAstudents will testify that learning inacademic environments isinvaluable for bringing new ideasand knowledge into theirbusinesses. But, barriers andconfusion about how best to engagein the wider economy still remain.The challenge for higher educationinstitutions must be to maintain theirworld class position whilestrengthening these relationships.

Looking to the future, ouruniversities will be more importantthan ever. It is simply inconceivablethat the UK economy could developa world class innovation ecosystemby 2025 without universities fulfilling

and developing in their role as trueinteractive partners in our economy.Our universities must play a role inhelping to rebalance our economyaway from its unhealthydependence on debt. Their role willbe even more significant in lessprosperous parts of the UK. In manyof these locations, universities arethe only credible knowledge-basedinstitution on which lastingeconomic growth can be built. Thismeans that our universities can’t riskresting on past success, orbecoming too inward looking.

Research needs to be inspired bythe needs of our economy. Resultsand messages from research needto be communicated directly tobusinesses. This isn’t just aboutbright research ideas generating afew billion dollar businesses,although we will need a few ofthese. Genuine academia-industryrelationships must becomebusiness as usual across oureconomy. A small catering companyshould be totally comfortableasking their local university how tomake their products go off lessquickly. A struggling online contentprovider should know how toaccess the UK’s experts on businessmodel research. Productive, flexiblerelationships of this nature will takemajor investments and will oftentake years to develop. Too oftenacademia-industry connections

happen in a fragmented way. We aretoo reliant on a few self-selectedenthusiasts. This quality connectionneeds to be the institutional norm,not the exception.

Over the next three years the BigInnovation Centre will be workingwith universities, businesses andpolicy makers to consider how wecan build a system in which allareas of our diverse universitysystem can flourish.

If we can get these types ofrelationships right and if we can findnew ways to fully immerse andembed all of our universities as trueinteractive partners right at theheart of our innovation system thenwe will be a long way towardscracking the innovation puzzle. So Ifind it incredibly encouraging thatso many of our brilliant universitiesare keen to work in partnership withthe businesses in the Big InnovationCentre. Working together like this isthe only way we can answer theseand many other big questions.

Will Hutton is one of the pre-eminent economicscommentators in the country.He is Chair of the BigInnovation Centre which willresearch and propose practicalreforms with the ambition ofmaking the UK a global openinnovation hub as part of theurgent task of rebalancing andgrowing the UK economy.

Over the next threeyears the Big InnovationCentre will be workingwith universities,businesses and policymakers to consider howwe can build a systemin which all areas of ourdiverse universitysystem can flourish.

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What does it take to make the electric dream a reality?Suzanne Gray, Project Manager, Mini E

As part of preparing itself forresponding to social trendsinfluencing car buying needs anddesires in the future, andrecognising demands for moresustainable personal mobility, BMWGroup has sought to understandhow people respond to electricvehicles. The Group has done so indepth, by trialling 612 fully electricMINI Es (the world’s largest electricvehicle test fleet) in a number ofcountries where this type of vehicleis expected to have potential. Whilst BMW Group has beenexperimenting with electricvehicles for the last forty years, it’sonly now that so many factors haveconverged to both require andstimulate a potential market forthese cars.

The UK is seen as a likely leadingmarket for low carbon vehiclesthanks to the series of initiatives andmeasures put in place by the UKGovernment, the Mayor of Londonand the responsible authorities in anumber of other cities and regions.Great emphasis has therefore beenplaced by BMW Group on UK inputto shape the design for electric cars,new services related to them andthe support framework to makethem a genuinely attractiveproposition for consumers andcompanies in order to drive uptake.

Creative thinking from within BMWGroup about the biggest changethe car industry has seen since itsinception needed an important real-world check. How would privateand company motorists and fleetmanagers get on living with adifferent type of car? What weretheir preconceptions, their realexperiences and their attitudestowards a different style ofmotoring? Might there beunexpected benefits from having anelectric car? What are potentialbarriers to the uptake of this type ofcar? What type of support isneeded for drivers?

During everyday usage, a MINI Ecan travel around 100-120 miles ona single charge, depending ondriving style and conditions and, ofcourse, offers the typically dynamicperformance for which the MINI isfamous. It can sprint from 0-62mphin just 8.5 seconds and has anelectronically-limited top speed of95mph. These characteristics madethis test vehicle an ideal candidateto give people a taste of just how farelectric vehicles have come.

For such an important task, BMWGroup sought a research partnerwho could complementinterpretation of behaviouralmetrics and engineering data withstrong psychological analysis. The multi-disciplinary offering that auniversity could bring to the tablewas a more diverse and holistic onethan the commercial sector alonecan typically produce. Thecombined strengths of OxfordBrookes University’s SustainableVehicle Engineering Centre (part ofthe School of Technology) and of itsSchool of Psychology led to itsselection. In particularmethodological expertise inresearch construction, selection,

delivery and analysis, as well asproven competence in thepsychological interpretation of datawere seen as key contributoryareas of expertise.

With a field trial lasting fromDecember 2009 to March 2011which saw 40 MINI Es being usedon UK roads, the University teamand its appointed researchers havedelivered very successfully on theirpromise and the approach theytook to studying users has beenrightly recognised as a benchmark.Their particular approach has goneon to form the basis for studyingelectric vehicle drivers across alleight of the UK trials supported bythe Technology Strategy Board, ofwhich the MINI E UK trial was one.

It was of great benefit to have thesetwo very different schools workingtogether to provide a holisticperspective across a range of

analysis and business modellingactivities. It brought a richness ofunderstanding that otherwise mightnot have been possible. Universitypartners have also featured in BMWGroup’s US and German trials, aswell as ongoing ones in France,China and Japan. The internationalinter-university introductions andcollaborations through the globaltrials programme have led to anetwork of learning and broaderinterpretation. Oxford Brookes haveadditionally forged valuable newlinks with one of China’s leadingtechnical universities. In terms ofcredibility with governmentstakeholders and policy-makers,academia scores highly and itsrecommendations are takenseriously. Since it will take aconcerted international effort on thepart of many different stakeholdersto encourage people andcompanies to be open to a newapproach to motoring, as well as asupportive policy framework that issupportive, academia has a veryimportant role to play in influencingthinking and education on this topic.Without a market for electrifiedvehicles, stringent passenger caremission reduction targets andambitions cannot be met.

The projectThe MINI E UK ResearchConsortium, of which BMW Groupwas the lead partner, comprised

several organisations based aroundOxford and the South-East ofEngland. All played important rolesin the collaborative field trial. Inaddition to the BMW Group, theconsortium included Scottish andSouthern Energy, which suppliedboth the electricity and theelectrical infrastructure, OxfordBrookes University and the SouthEast England Development Agency(SEEDA) as well as Oxford CityCouncil and Oxfordshire CountyCouncil. The MINI E UK trial wasone of the first of the TechnologyStrategy Board’s Ultra Low CarbonVehicle Demonstrator Programmes.

During the UK trial, the MINI E wastested on British roads by around100 private, corporate and publicsector drivers – all of whom gavevaluable feedback to the projectconsortium and UK Government.Between them they covered inexcess of 250,000 miles over theduration of the trial. The findings arebeing used to develop theengineering and infrastructuresupport for the future large-volumeproduction and deployment ofelectric vehicles and have helpedto establish the social andeconomic issues around running anelectric car.

Suzanne Gray is GeneralManager of Project I UK atBMW Group UK Ltd and lead onthe Mini E project.

The multi-disciplinaryoffering that auniversity could bringto the table was a morediverse and holistic onethan the commercialsector alone cantypically produce.

The international inter-universityintroductions andcollaborations throughthe global trialsprogramme have led toa network of learningand broaderinterpretation.

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Turning pioneering ideas and technologies into commercial successPhil Cooper, Managing Director, Venture Wales

Universities in Wales faceunprecedented change anduncertainty; struggling withspending cuts, pressure for tuitionfee hikes and, in some cases,political demands to surrender theirindependence and merge withneighbouring institutions. Althoughuncomfortable in the short term,these circumstances do presentopportunities as well as challenges.They underline the need for evenmore engagement with the widereconomy, as institutions strive forgreater financial sustainability.

Higher Education in Wales has longbeen recognised for its contributionto local economies. But the keyquestion remains whether thesector is fulfilling its true wealthcreation potential and how muchmore could it achieve?

It is widely accepted thatknowledge-based businesses arean important determinant ofeconomic growth and renewal. Anduniversities, without doubt, have animportant part to play in maximisingthe presence of such businesses inany local or regional economy.Their role in spawning spin-outtechnology-led enterprises is well

documented. But perhaps of evengreater significance is their role inproducing the graduateentrepreneurs responsible for goodquality business start-ups ingeneral.

To illustrate this; Wales’ overallbusiness birth rate equates to only79% of the British average but,surprisingly, we have a largerproportion of high-growth start-upsthan the rest of the UK. Almost everystudy shows that graduates makeup a disproportionately highnumber of new firm founders here,

and the number is increasing.

Wales, which accounts for 5% of UKhigher education, generated 10% ofall UK graduate-led business start-ups and more than 12% ofestimated turnover for all UKgraduate start-up firms in 2008-9 -around £16.5m. The 2009/10 figuresconfirm these earlier trends.

This is welcome, and probablyreflects the growing focus onenterprise awareness and skillswithin Welsh universities. In factalmost a quarter of all graduateswho take enterprise advice actuallygo on to launch a new venture, andthe business survival rates past thethree year milestone are impressive.

However, research suggests manygraduate entrepreneurs, althoughsuccessful and innovative, don’tbase their enterprises on theirdegree qualifications. This mayreflect the limited possibilities formore sophisticated businesses inthe contemporary Welsh economyor the need for more support fromthe universities to help them get offthe ground.

Clearly universities can make theirgreatest economic contribution

when their graduates or staff areturning pioneering ideas andtechnologies, developed oncampus, into commercial successesin the market place. This could behappening more than it is atpresent.

One prominent venture capitalistrecently admitted that there iswealth of good ideas, research andintellectual property stored in Welshhigher educational institutions butthey were often left rotting on thevine rather than being convertedinto commercial propositions.Successfully commercialising theseideas is vital both for increasingincome to universities themselvesand for making a substantialcontribution to economic growthand job creation.

The number of businesses spun outdirectly from Welsh universities areactually increasing, but the totalremains very small - just 4% of allnew such businesses. However,their true importance lies in thehigh-value activity at the heart ofthe business concerned. All ofthese spin-outs were established toexploit Intellectual Property (IP) andwere wholly or partly-owned by theuniversities.

Interestingly, the number ofgraduate-founded businessesbased on exploiting IP but outsideuniversities fell by 60%, althoughthe numbers are very small. This

difference suggests that the internaluniversity support is important indriving the numbers of graduate-founded IP-based businesses.

On the other hand, the number ofnew IP-based businesses started byuniversity staff, outside theirinstitutions, increased by a third.However, yet again, the numbers aresmall. This indicates appropriatesupport may be lacking within theuniversities, and engagement withprivate sector start-up supportagencies is not strong enough.

One area where Welsh universitiesare unfortunately under-performingis in their working relationships withsmall companies, which make up99% of all enterprises and half of allprivate sector employment inWales. Such companies often haveideas that could be enhanced oraccelerated to market withuniversity help. Sadly many regardHE as aloof and bureaucratic sothey stay away and miss theopportunity. This lack ofengagement certainly needs to beaddressed.

Overall, the business supportnetwork in Wales is substantial, but itneeds to be integrated more withthe universities if full potential is tobe realised. Welsh universities dotend to be more “enterprise aware”these days. All have successfullyaccessed Government and

European funds, combined in somecases with commercialsponsorship, to develop new ideas.In addition all take part in the WelshGovernment’s successful GraduateStart-Up Support Programme,which benefits from the assistanceof private sector advisory services.Other initiatives, such as the Princeof Wales Innovation Scholarship,although new, are also helpingdevelop IP-based businesses.

The fragile economy may posemany challenges to early-stagefirms but it also provides anexcellent stimulus for public andprivate sectors to work closertogether to harness this resource,leading to a more robust economywith a stronger base of indigenousenterprises.

To achieve this we need to removesilos and forge greater linksbetween skills and employment,between education and economicdevelopment and betweenknowledge and wealth creation. We have many areas of strengthand good practice in different partsof the country’s HE sector. This needs to become the normeverywhere.

Phil Cooper is ManagingDirector of Venture Wales, thelargest business start-up andsupport company in Wales.

Clearly universities canmake their greatesteconomic contributionwhen their graduates orstaff are turningpioneering ideas andtechnologies, developedon campus, intocommercial successesin the market place.This could behappening more than itis at present.

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Enabling innovation to flourishDr Graham Spittle, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, IBM Software Group Europe

The role of universities in thedeveloping economies is seen aspivotal in providing a basis foreconomic growth. The same is truefor the mature economies who areseeking to gain economicmomentum in a challengingenvironment When we look atuniversities in the UK we must do soin their wider global context tounderstand the challenges and alsothe key role they could provide inbecoming economic integrationpoints as well as places of learning.

The financial crisis of the late 2000s,which was triggered by a liquidityshortfall in the United Statesbanking system in 2008, broughtsharply into relief what manyobservers had begun to suspect:that we were seeing the breakdownof the old order and its systems andprocesses, coupled with a globalshift in power. This in turn led to arethinking of how institutions andGovernments should work, the wayjobs could be created or sustainedand the changing nature of society.

In the private sector this placedgreat strain on many businessesworldwide and indeed, many didnot survive. Those that did however

had undertaken a root and branchexamination of their structure andprocesses and refocused aroundtheir core business andreengineered accordingly. Mostbusinesses chose to focus on skilland agility to address a market thatvalues speed and real sustainablevalue.

In the public sector, governmentsstruggled and continue to strugglewith the massive structural debt,high unemployment and the urgentneed to restructure processes andpublic services. The first naturalreaction was a programme toaddress the deficit and raise taxes.Then the key question became howdo you create wealth again bystimulating growth? Two types ofresponse have emerged. The firstbeing targeted expenditure tostimulate key industries orinfrastructure projects and thesecond being a longer term focuson skills and innovation.

So if we focus on the UK, whereshould we look for innovation? Thethree traditional sources areuniversities, private sectorcompanies and individualentrepreneurs. I would contend thatwe need all three and we need far

greater mobility between all threesources as we seek to compete in amore competitive world. We need toachieve integration that providesnew ideas and a new speed tomarket for goods and services.

If we focus on just one of these,universities, we are endowed withan excellent platform here in the UK.Our universities have an enviablereputation for excellence andinnovation, consistently "punchingabove their weight" in global leaguetables of citations and publications.Whilst they have long beenrecognized as a source ofinnovation and creative thought,

universities have not been leveragedsufficiently to drive economicchange in the economy. They sit in aunique place in both the public andprivate sectors and are well placedto engage and stimulate both. Theyalso have a very strong regionalsignificance and are often the majoremployer in an area and a powerfulforce for the mobility of labour. Withtheir teaching and research staff,universities attract skills from all overthe world and increasingly, the sameis true of the students. Yet somehowwe just accept this and fail to exploitthis concentration of skill for thelonger term. We should considerhow to anchor as well as attract thistop talent .We need to foster theintegration capabilities of universitiesthat have always brought peopletogether to learn and to research.Why should it not be the same tobuild businesses and driveeconomic growth? Not just as abyproduct or a spin-out but part ofthe fundamental ethos, attractingfunding and skills accordingly.

Historically this has been seen as thefailure of the UK; with a needidentified to further exploit ourinventive capability in commercialterms and create wealth throughinnovation. Indeed this was one of thedriving forces behind the creation ofthe Technology Strategy Board(TSB); to harness the great ideas andtechnologies that are produced and"priming the pump” with funds to

stimulate the commercialdevelopment of ideas or very earlystage prototypes. During its shortexistence, the TSB has created manythousands of jobs and facilitated thestart up of businesses and thedevelopment of others. Clearlyfulfilling a need. This model beingfurther developed with the creationof the newly formed TechnologyInnovation Centers or TICs.

There is widespread agreement onthe conditions/activities that arenecessary for innovation to flourishsuch as, the sharing anddissemination of knowledge, allowing and promoting freemovement between industry anduniversity, investing and trusting inpeople and skills, and a supportivefiscal environment. So what then ismissing and how should we address it?

Fundamentally we have all the piecesof the puzzle but we continue toavoid putting them together andcreating the fluid exchange that isneeded between public and privatesectors, regions and countries,industry and academia and enablingthis continual linkage rather thanindividual actions. We must seek tovalue each other’s contribution ratherthan defend our own. Until thisbehavior becomes second nature wemust incent this interaction. Hencetax incentives for business to workwith universities may change

behaviour, as would rewarding andrecognising academics who workwith industry in the same manner aspublishing a paper. A tax regime thatstimulates the creation of jobs andthat encourages individuals toremain in the UK. Linking togetherexisting economic incentives to addfocus around high value sustainableactivities. Making explicit use ofuniversities as regional hubs tocatalyse local economies as well asdrive national growth.

This continued interchange betweeninstitutions and individuals must beaccelerated if we are to increase thetempo of our economy and use theresources at our disposal. We mustalso learn that creating the conditionsfor innovation is not the same asfunding R&D. Both are needed butare quite different in nature. We mustseek ways to find new markets andproducts.

The universities have a uniqueopportunity to embrace the newworld in which they find themselvesbut at the same time becomepowerful integrating forces foreconomic growth both regionallyand nationally.

Graham Spittle is the ChiefTechnology Officer and VicePresident, IBM Software GroupEurope. He is also Chair of theTechnology Strategy BoardGoverning Board.

When we look atuniversities in the UKwe must do so in theirwider global context tounderstand thechallenges and also thekey role they couldprovide in becomingeconomic integrationpoints as well as placesof learning.

Knowledge workforce

A graduate contributes between 20 and 48 per centgreater productivity to the labour market overemployees holding lesser qualifications. Together withinvestment in innovation and research, high-level skillsare of crucial importance to productivity growth,particularly in a developed economy.

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India: a nation built on geeky graduatesAngela Saini, Award winning science journalist and author

I was a teenager when I heard aBBC reporter on the radio ask apoor child on the streets of a bigIndian city – it could have beenDelhi, or perhaps Mumbai – whathe dreamed of becoming when hewas older. He replied, withouthesitation, that he wanted to go touniversity and make a life forhimself as an engineer. At the time,India’s science and technologyindustries were just taking off andafter decades of graduateunemployment, there were finallycoveted jobs available in shiny newoffice blocks and laboratories.

But the sad truth is that his dreammost probably remained a dream.Nearly half a million students sitIndia’s national engineering collegeentrance exams every year.Teenagers spend evenings andweekends revising, with manycoached by private tutors in theirspare time too. But places in theprestigious higher educationinstitutes are so scarce that barely10,000 make it through annually.This acceptance ratio is eventhinner than those at Oxford andHarvard, and it breaks the hearts ofmany of those who don’t achieve

their dream. Suicide rates amongststudents shoot up around examresults time. Becoming an engineerin India is almost as tough asbecoming a rock star.

By contrast, for me back at school inLondon, it seemed sostraightforward. There were dozensof universities and colleges offeringengineering courses nearby, andthe education and grades I neededto get admitted weren’t much of abarrier. I got my engineeringdegree. But I never really forgot thesound of that child’s voice.

Travelling around India last yearwhile writing my first book, GeekNation: How Indian Science is TakingOver the World, I realised just howmuch we in Britain take our

universities for granted. In India, thegovernment is desperately trying tomeet the surging demand for moreuniversity places. At the moment,around 600,000 engineering andjust below 700,000 science andmaths graduates are producedevery year, and they’re recognisedas the linchpins of the country’seconomic success.

The booming software industrybased in the IT parks of Bangaloreand Hyderabad – set to be worthmore than £7 billion by 2015 – ispeppered with graduates of theprestigious Indian Institutes ofTechnology. The burgeoning designindustries of Bombay and Delhi,where much of the world’sanimation and movie special effectsare done, rely on top-notch, creativeuniversity graduates as well. Newlaboratories are opening so fast thatuniversities can’t keep up with thedemand for fresh researchers. A fewyears ago saw the opening of thenation’s first space institute,dedicated to training up the rocketscientists and astronauts of thefuture.

These colleges and universities arecauldrons for fresh ideas as well as

talent, and the Indian governmenthas been quick to appreciate theireconomic value. And with itsambition to become a scientificsuperpower, these institutions arefeeding the growth in research anddevelopment that India needs.Industrialised countries generallyspend around 2% of their GDP onscientific research anddevelopment. India spends only0.8% now, putting it in the sameleague as developing nations likeSouth Africa and Brazil. But in thenear future it hopes to ramp this upto 1.2%, and in the longer term isdetermined to reach 2%.Neighbouring China has alreadyreached the 1.5% mark. Meanwhilethe UK, which spends around 1.8%,is freezing its science budget incash terms for the next four years,equating to a fall in real terms. Andthis means that both India's andChina’s trajectories could one daysee them both beat Britain inresearch investment.

India’s focus on education, scienceand technology is reflected in itsGDP growth rate, which hashovered around eight per cent forthe last few years, dipping onlyslightly when the global recessionhit after 2008. Hundreds ofthousands of skilled jobs are beingcreated. A population hungry fornew skills and new business feeds acycle of constant development, and

it’s a cycle that’s acknowledged tobegin in a lecture theatre.

India’s problem is getting enoughstudents educated fast enough. At the moment, a little more than 12per cent of eligible students make itto university in India, but thegovernment hopes to raise that to30 per cent in the next decade. This would mean setting up at least800 new universities. Funding hasalready been ramped up to meetthis goal – the budget for highereducation in India’s current five-year plan is nine times higher thanin the preceding five years. Andacross the border in China, it’s asimilar story.

Demand is so high that foreignuniversities are setting up campusesin both countries. LancasterUniversity already has links to aprivate institute near Delhi, andamong universities in the US thathave shown an interest in setting upcollaborations in India are GeorgiaTech, Carnegie Mellon and Brown.On top of this, thousands of Indianand Chinese students go overseasevery year to study at universities inthe West. According to the Instituteof International Education, morethan 440,000 Chinese are studyingabroad – the largest group, withIndians a close second.

In a science-led economy,universities are critical to producing

fundamental research andtechnology transfer. This is why thefamous Indian Institutes ofTechnology have begun toencourage more students to stayback to do PhDs, and are linking upwith industry so that students canwork on solutions to specific designproblems.

One example I quoted in my bookGeek Nation was that of the breadmaker, Harvest Gold, which ran acompetition asking students tocome up with a sturdier and morereliable crate to transport theirloaves. Hundreds of young, eagerengineers sent in their designs.

“The culture is shifting,” one IndianInstitute of Technology student toldme, after sending in his cratedesign and being awarded aprestigious third place prize. Unlikethe child I’d heard on the radiodecades before, he told me thatIndia was now a promising placefor young scientists and engineerslike him. “It’s about what peoplewant. It’s not easy but if they reallywant it, now they can get it,” he said.

Angela Saini is an award-winning British sciencejournalist and the author ofGeek Nation: How IndianScience is Taking Over theWorld (Hodder, 2011).

A population hungry fornew skills and newbusiness feeds a cycle ofconstant development,and it’s a cycle that’sacknowledged to beginin a lecture theatre.

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Reinvigorating the city through knowledge and talent:Greater Manchester’s universitiesMike Emmerich, Chief Executive, New Economy

In the wake of the most severerecession in living memory, there isan urgent need to reinvigorate theeconomy and create the conditionsfor sustainable economic growth. In Manchester, the role of our world-class higher education institutionswill be absolutely vital; with skills,innovation, investment and research-driven entrepreneurialism central tocreating a more dynamic, balancedand resilient economy in the long-term.

Greater Manchester’s universities –The University of Bolton, TheUniversity of Manchester, TheUniversity of Salford, ManchesterMetropolitan University, RoyalNorthern College of Music, andUniversity Campus Oldham (part ofthe University of Huddersfield) –constitute a major economic sectorin their own right. The universitiesdirectly employ around 20,000 staff,generate a combined income of over£1.4 billion per year and anexpenditure of £2.5 billion, and haveplans to spend over £1 billion ontheir campuses and estates over thenext three years. In addition,museums, exhibitions and eventsoperated by these universities

attracted over 884,000 attendees in2009/10, and generated numerousstudent volunteer and leadershipprogrammes. Perhaps the greatestimpact of the universities, however,comes from the talented individualsthey attract to Manchester and theknowledge that they develop, refineand spread across the world.

Attracting and retaining talentThe decline of the industrial city hasput a premium on highly-skilledindividuals to generate economicgrowth. Manchester’s universitiesare perhaps the city’s greatest assetin attracting fresh talent. Over125,000 people apply toManchester’s universities each yearand the total student populationexceeds 100,000.These studentshave a huge impact on the city,culturally and economically. In termsof direct spend alone theycontribute £1billion to the city eachyear and they fuel much of the city’scultural offer. More importantlythough, coming to study inManchester is many young people’sfirst experience of the city and it canoften lead to a lifelong connectionthat benefits the city and theindividual.

Manchester’s student population alsohelps to provide the city with a trulyinternational feel. Each year, over11,000 students come to study inManchester from outside theEuropean Union, making highereducation one of Manchester’sbiggest export sectors (foreignstudents inject almost £700 millioninto the region's economy eachyear). Once they have graduatedthese gifted individuals directlybenefit those companies inManchester and the UK that need toaccess high-level skills. They helpbuild a knowledge economy andstimulate the promotion of GreaterManchester as a trading destinationthrough their internationalconnections.

Manchester’s universities are alsocritical in the city’s drive to attractprofessionals from an internationalelite. To take just two examples, in theearly 20th Century, New Zealand-born Ernest Rutherford undertookhis most important work inManchester – splitting the atom forthe very first time - having movedhere aged 37. More recently, Russian-émigrés Andre Geim and KonstantinNovoselov won the 2010 Nobel prize

in physics for their discovery of theone-atom thick material Graphene,at the University of Manchester.

Creating and spreadingknowledgeUniversities are more than just acollection of students andacademics; they enable knowledgeexchange and innovation acrossvarious sectors. Independentresearch in Greater Manchester hashighlighted the important role of itsuniversities that goes beyond theconventional thinking about spinoffsfrom university research. Researchfrom Volterra Consulting (MIER,2009) concluded that, beyondspinoffs and the commercialisationof research, the universities play acritical role as important socialinstitutions where ideas can beexchanged freely – with the city’suniversities “acting as a bridgeconnecting parts of the [local]community and enhancing theregion’s capacity to innovate.”

In this respect, university researchthat is carried out locally plays avitally important role in thedevelopment of the human capitalthat businesses need for success – a process often referred to as“knowledge transfer”. Research-ledteaching equips graduates with thepersonal and professional skills thatemployers need. Postgraduates inparticular provide businesses witha highly-skilled labour force trainedin the latest research developmentsand techniques, able to thinkcreatively and solve complexproblems. Furthermore, manybusinesses directly access theresearch expertise of universitiesthrough working with academics,accessing education and training,or partnering with the universitieson major investment projects.

However, the direct role of spinoffsand commercialisation should notbe underestimated. In 2009/10, £32million of collaborative researchlinking public funding and businesswas carried out by GreaterManchester universities, whilst afurther £58 million of contractresearch was undertaken withorganisations including SMEs andlarger businesses.

As at 2010, over 292 active patentswere held across the three Cityuniversities and 61 graduate start-up companies were recorded inthat year. A further 16 spinoff

companies were launched includingseven staff start-ups.

Maximising the universities’impactGreater Manchester’s universitieshave historically played a vital role inthe local and national economy.Going forward, these universities willhave an increasingly important roleto play in sustaining economicrecovery, by attracting the best talentand supporting the development ofthe city’s knowledge-basedeconomy. By working together –through bodies such as GreaterManchester’s Local EnterprisePartnership – Manchester’suniversities, businesses and publicauthorities can realise mutually-reinforcing economic growth, privatesector investment, innovation andentrepreneurialism to ensure thelong-term prosperity of the city.

Mike Emmerich is ChiefExecutive of New Economy. NewEconomy’s purpose is to createeconomic growth and prosperityfor Greater Manchester and leadon economic development forthe Manchester City Region onbehalf of the Association ofGreater Manchester Authorities.

The universities directlyemploy around 20,000staff, generate acombined income ofover £1.4 billion peryear and an expenditureof £2.5 billion.

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Little to lose and much to gainSam Laidlaw, Chief Executive, Centrica

The UK’s higher education sector isworld class. Four of the UK’suniversities rank in the top tenworldwide and fourteen rank in thetop one hundred. Equallysignificantly, the depth of universitiesacross Britain provides broadregional economic benefits andbreadth of teaching and researchcapabilities that are essential to oureconomic competitiveness.

This capacity provides twoimportant advantages: firstly, thecreation of a highly skilledworkforce and secondly, thedevelopment of new ideas, productsand services from research. Toensure that these economic benefitsare realised, it is essential thathigher education and research areattuned to societal and businessneeds. Finding a way of improvingcollaboration between highereducation and business will befundamental for our collectivesuccess. Such collaboration will notonly be a key factor in creating asustainable higher educationsystem but it will also be critical insecuring the UK’s economicrecovery.

Turning first to the role of education

and training, our success in theglobal economy will increasinglydepend on our ability to furtherdevelop high value-add sectorssuch as professional services,engineering and manufacturing.These sectors are reliant on a highlyskilled workforce with advancedgraduate level skills.

Business, therefore, has threekey priorities for highereducation:• raising the number and quality of students with skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), which are increasingly important to UK businesses

• Raising employability skills of graduates, enabling students to deliver the full potential of their academic learning on entering the business environment

• engaging more actively with universities by offering work experience and internship opportunities and committing timeto participate in degree programme advisory boards.

At Centrica, we have investedsignificantly in raising the number

and competencies of the youngpeople we bring into our businessfrom universities. Our graduateprogramme has doubled in size to75 students and to assist graduatesin developing the employabilityskills they need for successfulcareers, we now run a summerinternship programme for up to 75undergraduates each year. We arealso trialing a similar initiative toprovide business students with workexperience opportunities andsponsoring engineering students asthey complete their undergraduatedegrees.

Turning to technology andinnovation, university research haslong been a source of new ideas,

products and services that havebeen commercialised by business.But the world is changing,becoming more complex andinterconnected and the frontiers ofknowledge are moving ever furtherfrom obvious practical application.In this environment, there is anincreasing need for academia andbusiness to work closely together toensure that the benefits of theinvestment in research areoptimised. There will, of course,always be a place for pureresearch, but effective partnershipbetween universities and businesswill ensure that the UK economygets the best possible return on theinvestment in university research.

While big business may in somecases be well positioned tocommercialise ideas generatedfrom research, as is the case forexample in the pharmaceuticalindustry, it is often small andmedium enterprises (SMEs) whoprovide the bridge between theprototype and mass market. SMEsalso form an important part ofregional employment. It is thereforeessential to create an environmentthat makes engagement withacademic institutions simpler,particularly for organisations suchas SMEs who often find it difficult totap into the resources universitieshave to offer; whether this isaccessing research and innovation,

delivery of workforce training oraccessing students themselves.At Centrica, we continue to seekopportunities to workcollaboratively with universityresearch groups. We are currentlyworking with a number ofuniversities on energy researchprojects ranging from conventionalpower generation through to smartgrid technologies giving Centricaaccess to the latest thinking andinnovations as well as providing postgraduate students with real liferesearch challenges.

There is still much more we couldcollectively be doing. Business cando more to develop the skills theyvalue by providing opportunities forwork experience to students.University services and researchcan become more accessible tolocal companies, creating theessential link between SMEs andresearch labs as well as with bigbusiness.

Most crucially, we must recognisethat there is little to lose and muchto gain from closer ties betweenbusiness and academia. This willenable both to thrive and for thehigher education sector to remainas pivotal to the UK’s prosperity inthis century as it was in the last.

Effective partnershipbetween universitiesand business willensure that the UKeconomy gets the bestpossible return on theinvestment in universityresearch. The world is changing,

becoming morecomplex andinterconnected and thefrontiers of knowledgeare moving ever furtherfrom obvious practicalapplication. Sam Laidlaw is CEO of

Centrica, the British naturalgas and electricity company. He also chaired the CBI HigherEducation Taskforce whichpublished its report in 2009 onbusiness-universitycollaboration.

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Empowering the regional economy through technology educationNick Wilson, Managing Director, Hewlett Packard UK and Ireland

Education in science, technology,engineering, and mathematics(STEM) is crucial to thedevelopment of students andeconomic opportunities in the UK.As a nation, we struggle to keep ouryoung people interested in science,technology and mathematics andthese subjects are absolutely vitalfor growing innovation andeconomic opportunities in the UK.

When young people finish theirGCSEs, nearly half opt out ofstudying STEM subjects. This ishaving a dramatic effect in theemployment market as only 5.3% ofall working women are employed inSTEM occupations, compared to31.3% of men. In the recent UK

Graduates Career Survey 2011, just3.9% of final year students appliedfor IT-related positions.

HP recognises the importance oftechnology education tobusinesses. Technology educationwill help develop students of allages with the necessary andrelevant skills for roles in the IT,science and engineering industries.For many years, HP has worked withthe higher education sector toprovide the highest quality recruitsfor its own growth, innovation andbusiness success.

We believe we are in a uniqueposition to provide a balanced view,both as a global business with astrong requirement for good qualitygraduates and also as a strategicpartner to a number of universities.

Courses – relevant to business needsBusinesses are increasingly lookingfor highly skilled graduates who canmake a real difference and hit theground running. University coursesshould be designed so that they arerelevant to tomorrow’s businessneeds. This will enable graduates todevelop the right skills before

entering the workplace. Too manytechnology degrees fail bothgraduates and employers in thatemployment rates among ITgraduates are some of the poorestdespite the skills shortages in theseareas.

Our partnership with the Universityof the West of England (UWE) hasresulted in the development of afour year enterprise computingdegree course that contains coursecollateral from both UWE and HP.During the course studentsundertake a one year internshipwith HP gaining real life businessand technology experience. At theend of the degree course, studentswill gain industry recognisedprofessional qualification, providingthem with an excellent careerstarting point and making themhighly sought after by prospectiveemployers.

Gateway to higher and furthereducationThere are many social groupsunder-represented within highereducation and further educationeither through low aspiration, lack ofopportunity or lack of a ‘personalsupport network’. This is a pool of

great potential talent that could beharnessed for regional businessesto drive economic growth.Universities need to have awidening participation agenda thatreaches out to regional communitiesto encourage members of thesegroups into the education system.

An example of one recent UWEinitiative involved the crew of SpaceShuttle Mission STS-133 deliveringa presentation to hundreds of schoolpupils in Bristol. The event wasaimed to inspire young secondaryschool pupils to consider studyingSTEM subjects, but moreimportantly to explain there is nolimit to what they can achieve.

Making a differenceGetting involved in local communityprogrammes run by universities inpartnership with IT companies candeliver huge benefits to the qualityof life for people at a local, nationaland international level. Interestingly,these social innovation programmesprovide other benefits too.University student volunteers gainadditional skills and experience,which is often seen as a positivedifferentiator when applying foremployment. Industry partnerssupplying resources such as staffdelivering courses at localuniversities notice enhancedemployee engagement within theirown company. HP is one examplewhere staff dedicate their time to

teaching courses at localuniversities. The success of thesesocial innovation activities enhancesthe standing and status of theuniversity within the community.Universities together withtechnology partners have thepotential to bring some verycompelling local initiatives intothese communities and can make aconsiderable impact, especially inthe areas of education andhealthcare.

Supporting regional businessWe believe that universities can usetheir relationships with localcommunities and businesses,teamed with the new technologiesthat they have at their disposal, tolead regional economic growth.With this universities andcompanies with a global presencesuch as HP can help regional smalland medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) to operate in the globalmarket.

Universities are increasinglybecoming the cradle of much newbusiness creation as theyencourage spin-off businessesthrough their incubator operations.Technology plays an important partin this process and the latestevolutions of networking,communications and convergedinfrastructure make it possible foruniversities to offer their incubatorshigh levels of individual technology

services to get their business off theground. Regional start-up or pre-start-up business entrepreneurs arenot only provided with the latesttechnology but also officeaccommodation, hands-on adviceand guidance, together withprofessional mentoring.

Through innovation andcollaboration between universitiesand IT partners, cloud computingsolutions can be deployed toregional SMEs providing the type ofservice and solutions that untilrecently were only available tolarger organisations. This is aninitiative that we are currentlyexploring with UWE by providingenterprise level IT capability tosome 350 SMEs in the South West.

We believe that universities can playa leadership role in building newregional economic models that canenable the UK to rebalance itseconomy and return to a track ofsustainable growth. Our aim is to beat the centre of this regenerationand see partnerships withuniversities as a key part of thisstrategy.

Nick Wilson is ManagingDirector of Hewlett Packard(UK&I) leading the UK andIreland operations of theworld’s largest technologycompany.

We believe thatuniversities can usetheir relationship withlocal communities andbusinesses, teamed withthe new technologiesthat they have at theirdisposal, to leadeconomic growth.

Attracting inward investment

Universities are international organisations, operatingacross hundreds of countries and forming partnershipswith global business. As one of the UK’s major exportindustries, universities have the capacity to leverageinvestment for the benefit of the regional economy.

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Universities and the five drivers of productivityEd Cox, Director, IPPR North

Universities are a key resource inclosing the productivity gapbetween the North and South ofEngland and facilitating the growthof the Northern regions as they acton each of the five drivers ofproductivity – investment,innovation, skills, enterprise andcompetition.

Universities encourage investmentby providing the potential for high-value added business activity andthe availability of highly skilledworkers; evidence published by theOECD suggests that investment inuniversities is more effective ingenerating research-intensiveforeign direct investment thanoffering financial incentives to

foreign investors. Numerousexamples can be found of firms thatcite universities as their reason forinvesting in the Northern regions,especially where Science Parks arelocated.

Universities are important innovationassets, as the nature of academicresearch is to challenge andimprove on current ways of thinkingand doing. The universityenvironment is one of constantinnovation and a resource for localbusinesses to tap into throughformal (e.g. consultancy work) andinformal means (e.g. spillovereffects). Indeed, the UKgovernment’s own research hasfound that those firms that engagewith universities show highermarket share, better product qualityand a greater product range. Forexample, universities in the NorthEast are heavily involved ininnovation in the region’s automotiveproduction industry; NewcastleUniversity is working with privatesector partners to develop moreefficient electric cars and theUniversity of Sunderland hasspecialised in working withdomestic and foreign firms to

develop hydrogen fuel cellprototypes.

Universities are the main providersof higher level skills training andtherefore act to attract and retainskilled workers within localeconomies, providing the potentialfor areas to diversify their economicbase and facilitate the creation andlocation of high value added firms.Research has also found thatuniversities tend to increase thedemand for highly skilled workersin the local economy beyond thedirect effect of those employed bythe university. Universities play acrucial role in upskilling the localpopulation and increasing socialmobility. An interesting example isthe University of Cumbria, which isat the forefront of innovative ways ofdelivering learning over a widegeographic area via learningcentres and online resources,providing easy access for localpeople to increase their skills.

Universities are becomingincreasingly important in thecreation of new enterprise throughthe commercialisation of academicresearch, the formation of firmsexploiting the expertise of

university staff and new graduatesgetting involved in start-ups.Recognising the potential ofstudents and graduates in drivinglocal business growth, the LiverpoolJohn Moores University’s Enterprisefellowship programme providesbusiness support for graduate start-ups in Merseyside. This yearLiverpool City Council havelaunched a sponsorship scheme tofund 30 places on the programmewhich seeks to create additionalbusinesses in the city, especially inthe digital and knowledge-basedindustries.

Taking the above together,universities help to lower the costsof production and encourage newentry into markets leading togreater competition between firms.

It is welcome that universityrepresentation appears integral tomost of the recognised LocalEnterprise Partnerships (LEPs).IPPR North’s Northern EconomicFutures Commission is considering

ways in which the Northern regionsand LEPs can further exploit theiruniversity assets to driveproductivity improvements as partof a wider programme of work intothe critical issues facing theeconomy of the North and newapproaches to local and regionaleconomic policy.

Recent research by ImperialCollege London found that the £3.5billion annual research councilfunding resulted in a £45 billionannual increase in the output of UKfirms. Given how important privatesector growth is to the economicrecovery and reducing regionaldisparities, policymakers would befoolish to ignore the centrality ofuniversities to this objective.

Ed Cox is Director of IPPRNorth and Deputy Chair of therecently launched NorthernEconomic FuturesCommission. The Commissionis aiming to articulate a 10-yearstrategy for economic growthacross the North of England.

IPPR North’s NorthernEconomic FuturesCommission isconsidering ways inwhich the Northernregions and LEPs canfurther exploit theiruniversity assets todrive productivity.

Firms that engage withuniversities showhigher market share,better product qualityand a greater productrange.

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Higher Education and economic growth – a Scottish perspectiveDr Lena Wilson, Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise

It may surprise some to know thatScotland is a world leader in highereducation. We have the highestconcentration of universities inEurope and the highest ratio ofresearch publications per head ofpopulation in the world. Almost225,000 students are registered withScottish universities – 15% of whomare from outside the UK.

Our universities employ more than35,000 people and have acombined turnover of more than£2.5 billion – almost half of which issourced from the private sector andcompetitively won sources. Exportearnings, alone, are estimated to beworth more than £500 million.

The sheer scale of some of thesenumbers demonstrates the criticalrole that universities already play inScotland’s economic performance.But we believe they offer evengreater potential and are workingtogether to identify how we cancapitalise on the research strengthsacross all of our universities tocreate even more value forScotland’s economy.

We’ve seen some of the biggestmedical and scientificbreakthroughs occur in ouruniversities. This includes some ofthe more notorious developmentssuch as Dolly, the first cloned sheep,but also less well knownbreakthroughs such as penicillin,the cervical cancer vaccine and CTand MRI scanners. However, werecognise that it is not enough to justbe a nation that producesoutstanding research. We want to beknown as a country that exploits thatresearch to generate more wealth,more jobs and more investment.

To do that, we need to get better atgrowing the companies that emergefrom the commercialisation ofresearch and develop greater linksbetween our universities and

businesses that will help fuel growthin Scotland’s key industries. Thatincludes promoting the capabilitiesof our universities internationally sothey can act as a magnet forattracting new investment fromglobal companies looking topartner in new research or establisha new R&D base. It also includescreating a culture ofentrepreneurship within ouruniversities to help spark more spinout companies while at the sametime helping our existing companybase to access technology beingdeveloped in our universities thatwill help them develop newproducts or open up new markets.

In Glasgow, we’ve announced ourambitions to establish theInternational Technology andRenewable Energy Zone (ITREZ) – acluster of activity that draws on boththe academic expertise andcapabilities at the University ofStrathclyde alongside the privatesector that will establish Glasgow asa powerhouse of green energydevelopments. The growth of therenewables sector is a top priorityof both the Scottish and UKgovernments. Our universities have

a fundamental role to play inhelping us to achieve thoseambitions.

ITREZ will transform Glasgow citycentre and act as a hub forScotland’s research, developmentand commercialisation activity inrenewables. Scottish, UK andinternational companies will beable to access cutting edgeresearch and some of the bestpeople working within the sector todevelop new products that willshape the renewable energyindustry of tomorrow.

We recognise that universities canalso help to address challenges thathave permeated our business basefor a number of years and affectedoverall productivity levels.Specifically, issues aroundinternationalisation and leadership.Both of these areas are hugelyimportant in the current climate. If we are to accelerate economicrecovery, we need more companiesoperating internationally and weneed better leaders who can spot

these opportunities and are notafraid to go after them.

The international reputation ofScotland’s education sector meansthat our universities are pushing atan open door in emergingeconomies like China and India,which have experienced the fastestgrowth in recent years and offersome of the biggest opportunitiesfor Scottish companies. We’reworking with our university base toidentify how we can make more ofthese international networks toenable our company base tointernationalise and exploit newopportunities in key sectors andattract new inward investment.

Higher education also has asignificant role to play in enhancingthe leadership capabilities withinour companies. The greatest flow ofknowledge from universities toindustry is through the recruitmentof graduates – Scotland’s futurebusiness leaders. The increasingfocus on enterprise skills acrossundergraduate courses can onlyenhance this future supply. Buttoday, too many of our companiesare underperforming because theirleaders can’t see their potential orhow to improve the way they dobusiness. We need to encourageour business base to be moreambitious, to raise their aspirations.

A number of our universities,including Glasgow CaledonianUniversity and Napier University,already have real strengths in MBAprovision and research. We are alsoworking with other universities toexplore how we can compete withglobal business schools andenhance the provision of strategicbusiness leadership.

While all of these activities –developing better links withindustry, commercialisation andknowledge transfer,internationalisation and leadership– can support economic growth,they can also transform theperformance of individualuniversities.

The economic environment acrossthe UK is going to remain prettytough and the higher educationsector has its own challenges todeal with, particularly around thepublic funding environment.However, there’s no doubt thatuniversities can continue to play aleading role in the country’seconomic recovery and, at thesame time, identify exciting newopportunities for themselves.

If we are to accelerateeconomic recovery, weneed more companiesoperating internationallyand we need betterleaders who can spotthese opportunities andare not afraid to go afterthem.

The greatest flow ofknowledge fromuniversities to industry isthrough the recruitmentof graduates.

Lena Wilson is Chief Executiveof Scottish Enterprise, workingwith businesses across Scotlandto stimulate economic growthand improve the businessenvironment.

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Attracting investment in Northern IrelandProfessor Tony Gallagher, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Queen’s University Belfast

Northern Ireland’s two universities,Queen’s and the University of Ulster,play a central role in the social,political, cultural and economic lifeof society. Both universities draw themajority of their students from thelocal region and many of theleaders in politics, business,professions and the widercommunity are graduates. Bothhave an enduring commitment to amission of service to the region.Central to this is their economicimpact. They attract significant levelsof foreign direct investment, directlythrough research contracts andindirectly through the pipeline ofinnovative and employablegraduates. Both universities leveradditional funds, above their directgovernment grant, to generatesignificant economic activity. Andhigher education is recognised ascentral to the creation of a dynamic,innovative economy, the primaryfocus of the Northern IrelandExecutive Programme forGovernment.

Both universities lever fundsadditional to their direct grant, withQueen’s leveraging an additional£166, and the University of Ulster an

additional £119, for every £100 ofdirect grant. Furthermore, bothgenerate additional economicactivity beyond their core income:from a combined income of almost£500m, Queen’s generates anadditional £400m and the Universityof Ulster an additional £275m ineconomic activity. The twouniversities directly employ 6,500people, but generate at least thesame again through the multipliereffect, making higher education amajor player in supporting andsustaining employment in theregion.

In today’s challenging economicclimate, regions such as NorthernIreland must identify and build ontheir strengths if they are to emergefrom recession as a strong globalplayer. A clear strength of NorthernIreland lies in its people, so we havea commitment to retain and developthat talent and build on its reputationas a region that values and invests inthis most important asset, humancapital. Indeed, a number of majorinward investment announcementshave cited Northern Ireland’s talentpool and highly skilled graduates asthe main reason for investing in the

region. In explaining CitiGroup’sdecision to invest in NorthernIreland, their CEO stated that it wasthe quality of graduates and theirloyalty to Northern Ireland, whichunderpinned such a compellingcase for investment.

Queen’s has a long establishedstrategy of fostering anentrepreneurial culture andpromoting the successfultransformation of good research intogood business through innovationand commercial development. The University’s venture spin-outcompany, QUBIS, has generatedcompanies with an annual turnoverin excess of £100m and almost1,000 high value jobs. Despite theeconomic downturn, QUBIS has

created five new high-techcompanies in the last three years.One of the most successful spin-outcompanies is Andor Technologyplc. Andor was set up in 1989 andnow employs over 260 people in 16offices worldwide distributing itsproducts to 10,000 customers in 55countries and has now surpassedmarket capitalisation of £100m.

Small and medium sizedenterprises (SMEs) in NorthernIreland have benefitedconsiderably from technologytransfer. The Knowledge TransferUnit was established at Queen’s in1993 to provide a focal point for thepromotion and support ofknowledge transfer activities, inparticular to increase theinvolvement of SMEs with theUniversity, by developingcollaborative projects throughKnowledge Transfer Partnerships(KTPs). KTPs allow young graduatesto be employed by business, butcontinue to be supervised byacademics from the relevantuniversity department, providing avery useful bridge betweenacademic departments andbusinesses. This facilitates thetransfer of expertise from theuniversities and colleges to theprivate sector. There are currently70 KTP programmes in NorthernIreland: 40 are led by Queen’s, 17by the University of Ulster and 13 bythe Further Education Colleges.

The two universities have alsodeveloped strong partnerships withlarger companies. Queen’s, forexample, works in partnership withcompanies such as Bombardier,Wrightbus, FG Wilson, Randox andAlmac, all of whom value theUniversity’s research strengths andmention them as a key factor in theircontinued commitment toinvestment in the province. The current development of theNorthern Ireland AdvancedComposites Engineering Centre, acollaboration between Queen’s, theUniversity of Ulster and Bombardieris a further example.

Research undertaken by theuniversities has a critical role to playin inward investment. If NorthernIreland is to be successful inattracting and retaining hi-tech,high-value inward investment, thenit is essential that a high priority isgiven to protecting the existing skillsbase and ensuring that Northern

Ireland has the internationallyrecognised research infrastructureit needs. Investment followsexcellence and companies at thecutting edge want to be locatedclose to centres of excellence.

All of these achievements are builton foundations of academicexcellence and a commitment toinspire participation. Queen’s andthe University of Ulster encouragethe brightest and best amongst ouryoung people to stay in NorthernIreland, while seeking to attract thebrightest and best from across theworld to study and work here.Realising the full benefits of highereducation will only be achieved,however, if Northern Irelandmaintains levels of investment inhigher education and this,unfortunately, is currently under threat.

Tony Gallagher is Professor of Education and Pro Vice-Chancellor at Queen’sUniversity Belfast. He has actedas a consultant for manygovernment departments, non-governmental publicbodies and a range ofinternational organisations.

A number of majorinward investmentannouncements havecited Northern Ireland’stalent pool and highlyskilled graduates as themain reason for investingin the region.

In today’s challengingeconomic climate,regions such as NorthernIreland must identify andbuild on their strengths ifthey are to emerge fromrecession as a strongglobal player.

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Siemens and the University of Lincoln Engineering Hub

When the University of Lincolncampus was founded in 1996 withinvestment from local businessesand authorities, a primary aim wasto set up a school of engineeringthat would work closely with theenergy and power generationengineering companies that clusterin and around Lincoln.

At the heart of this cluster isSiemens Industrial TurbomachineryLimited, which has beenmanufacturing gas turbines for

industrial and corporate clientsworld-wide from its base in Lincolnfor more than 150 years.

Since that time, the university’spartnership with Siemen’s hasgrown to the extent that in June 2009a joint submission to the StrategicDevelopment Fund was submittedto support the creation of a newschool of engineering; the firstpurpose built engineering school tobe created for more than 20 years.

The new school of engineering wasfounded in order to develop localcapacity to produce industry-readygraduates, provide newopportunities for staff to undertakepersonal and professionaldevelopment and to establishworld-class expertise in gascombustion and relatedtechnologies.

The UK, in common with many of itsEuropean partners, can’t getenough engineering graduatesfrom engineering degrees. It isestimated that the power industrysector alone will need up to 34,000new graduates, and ‘greenengineering’ sectors, including windpower, between 50,000 and 70,000.

This helps explain the rationalebehind the new engineering school;it will create the engineers of thefuture.

As such, an initial stimulus for thepartnership was the need to identifyand attract bright graduates intoengineering at a time whenenrolments on degrees in thissubject were falling and interest in itas a career was waning.

The University of Lincoln workedwith Siemens to develop aframework that would attractstudents to study engineering atLincoln and provide a means ofselecting the strongest foremployment in Siemens. Generousscholarships to cover tuition fees,along with a bursary based onacademic excellence, paid workduring vacations, and workexperience as part of the degreewere agreed forming the basis ofrecruitment of the first full-timecohort of undergraduate students inSeptember 2010. Studentsperforming well academically anddemonstrating the ability to applythis in the workplace in Siemens willbe offered graduate entry jobs ongraduation.

To enhance this, the Siemens’product training team, which is co-located with school of engineeringstaff in a dedicated on-campusbuilding, provide almost 300 hoursa year of training in Siemensproduct technology to students,offering real experience ofengineering products and anintroduction to Siemens’ productionand field engineering services. Co-location of the Siemens’ trainingteam and academic staff from theschool of engineering is alsoexpected to lead to accreditation ofsome of Siemens’ training, personaldevelopment of Siemens staffthrough enrolment on postgraduatetaught and research degrees, andmutual understanding and empathy.Siemens’ customers will also attendcourses in the building, which isjoint-branded.

Part-time provision has also beendeveloped, in partnership, so thatSiemens could shape thecurriculum content and mode ofdelivery to its staff developmentneeds, starting with a part-timeundergraduate degree that isdelivered alongside the full-timedegree. Members of Siemens staffnow study part-time with full-timeundergraduates over a five-yearperiod to receive their degrees.

A postgraduate masters course, theMSc Energy and Renewables, wasdeveloped through internalcompetition within Siemens,reflecting the increasing investmentof the company, and otherbusinesses, in renewable energyand energy management.

Demonstrating the power of thisembedded and genuinepartnership, a wide portfolio ofresearch projects has also beendeveloped. These range fromdevelopmental R&D through tocommercial research andcommercialisation of intellectualproperty. Commissioned on aproject-by-project basis, theresearch has to make a clear casefor a return to Siemens. In order toenhance academic output, a formalintellectual property agreement hasbeen signed and a process forpublishing research results in peer-reviewed academic journals andother outlets agreed.

And the effects are being felt furtherafield. As well as the closecollaboration between theUniversity of Lincoln and Siemens,the school has developed close tieswith local engineering businesses –undertaking commissionedresearch, Knowledge TransferPartnerships, and access to part-time degrees. This has enhancedSiemens’ supplier network locally,and builds greater capacity withinthe engineering, power and energycluster of businesses located in andaround Lincoln.

All this and the school only openedits doors in 2010. The partnership isfirmly established but with so muchactivity underway we can onlyglimpse at the potential impact forour regional economy and forfuture generations of engineeringstudents to study at Lincoln.

Professor Andrew Atherton, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Innovation and Enterprise),University of Lincoln

Andrew Atherton is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research,Innovation & Enterprise) andProfessor of Enterprise &Entrepreneurship at theUniversity of Lincoln. He hasresponsibility for theUniversity’s research,enterprise and employabilityagendas.

The new school ofengineering wasfounded in order todevelop local capacity toproduce industry-readygraduates, provide newopportunities for staff toundertake personal andprofessionaldevelopment and toestablish world-classexpertise in gascombustion and relatedtechnologies.

An initial stimulus forthe partnership was theneed to identify andattract bright graduatesinto engineering at atime when enrolmentson degrees in thissubject were falling andinterest in it as a careerwas waning.

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Around

70% of theUniversity ofBradford's coursesare professionally accredited.

Oxford Brookes University is the eighth largestemployer in Oxfordshireand over £19m of itsannual spend goes tolocal suppliers.

De Montfort Universityboosts the EastMidlands economy by£31.9m each yearthrough KnowledgeTransfer Partnerships, business services andstart-upbusinesses.

Northumbria University hasstrong links with industry – 1,500 students areworkplace based and 600employers sponsor universityprogrammes.

Bournemouth University hasmore full-time undergraduatestudents on a sandwich coursethan any other English, Welsh orScottish Universities.

Developed with major blue-chipcompanies, 'WOW' (World ofWork) is a unique program integrated across the curriculum atLiverpool John Moores University.

The University of Hertfordshireraised over £10M to develop oneof the UK’s largest bioscience incubation facilities.

The University of Lincoln's businessincubation centre, Sparkhouse, hashelped over 100 businesses toestablish themselves in the region,creating over 200 new jobs.

With 43% of ManchesterMetropolitan University students from low incomebackgrounds, it adds£147m per year in social value by contributingto social mobility and improving thequality of life ofthousands.

Since 2001, The Hive atNottingham Trent Universityhave helped more than 250start-up companies,over 70% are still tradingtoday.

A £12 million Enterprise andInnovation Centreat the University of Huddersfield will generatejobs and prosperity forthe region.

Facts and figures

University of the West of England is leading 1 of 4prestigious Knowledge Exchange Hubsfor the Creative Economytasked with increasingentrepreneurial capacityand research-basedknowledge exchange.

The University of Glamorgan’s

£130minvestment programme includes a hospital simulation suite, hydrogenresearch centre and aerospace centre complete with a real airliner.

The University of Salford soon jointhe BBC at MediaCityUK in SalfordQuays, providing vital training forthe North West’s £15.8bn digitaland creative sector.

Teesside has launched its own knowledge transfer initiative to help100 North East SMEs improve their business performance through

innovation.

University of Wales, Newport, inpartnership with the city council,have transformed a city centrebrown field site by investing£40M in a new campus.

Every year the University ofPortsmouth supports over 300entrepreneurs from the local economy, helping translateideas into commercial realities.

Aberystwyth University is leadinga £20 million green technologyprogramme that could boost thegreen economy in Wales and significantly contribute to combating climate change.

Glasgow Caledonian hasexcellent training and R&Dpartnerships with many leadingScottish organisations includingHowden and ClydeUnion.

Plymouth University leads theGrowth Acceleration and Innovation Network comprisingsome £100 million pounds of innovation assets across the region.

The University of Wales Institute, Cardiffhas worked with 5,000 companiesand brought over 500 new productsto the marketplaceover the past ten years.

Three out of four

FTSE 100companies have sponsoredstaff on Open Universitycourses.

Sheffield Hallam University’sEnterprise Centre has helped63 students start up theirown companiessince 2008.

UNIVERSITY ALLIANCE

www.university-alliance.ac.uk

University Alliance represents 23 major UK universities who workclosely with business to deliver world-class research and a highquality student experience.

Alliance universities have innovation and enterprise runningthrough everything they do and deliver - the courses they offer;their leading graduate prospects; the impact of their research; how they work with business, the professions and the community;the leading role they play in building regional economies; right down to the way they are run.

They are universities without boundaries: delivering economicand social growth through close links with their research, students and staff and the world around them – locally, nationally and internationally.