MINISTERIO DE EDUCACION

The challenge of translating the results of publicly supported R&D into commercial products, process and services has led to the development of an extensive range of long-standing measures to promote science-industry collaboration. To this has been added new cluster-type measures (such as Catapults Centres which aim to give businesses access to specialist equipment and emerging technologies and connect them to academic expertise, Knowledge and Innovation Centres and Research and Innovation Campuses) and other incentives, which address a range of actors, through a broad variety of modalities to promote and sustain collaboration for innovation.

The UK’s ‘Our plan for growth’ (HMT & BIS, 2014) notes that the Catapult network will continue to expand with the opening of two more Catapults for Energy Systems and Precision Medicine in 2015 while the High Value Manufacturing Catapult centres will receive a further £61m (c. €77m) funding.

The evidence paper supporting ‘Our plan for growth’ (BIS, 2014b) notes that “’Open innovation’ where firms and other stakeholders collaborate to develop new ideas is an area of increasing policy interest. This is because innovation entails problem-solving, and this frequently involves problems that are outside the existing capabilities of businesses”. However, this forms the only mention of the term, possibly since there is extensive academic debate concerning the distinction between ‘open innovation’ and long standing modes of collaboration. Typically, policy documents tend to assume that the terms collaboration and knowledge exchange are sufficient.

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Moreover, the Research Councils support substantial translational activity, including following on funding, as well as Innovation Knowledge Centres and research and innovation campuses. The table below provides for the main measures with details of overall budgets:

Table 13: UK measures and funding supporting collaborations between HE and business Catapults Centre bringing business and public sector researchers together

to work on late stage R&D projects. 7 open (High Value Manufacturing; Cell Therapy; Offshore Renewable Energy; Satellite Applications; Connected Digital Economy; Future Cities; Transport Systems); 2 due to open 2015 (Energy Systems; Precision Medicine).

£1b earmarked

Catalysts Run jointly by Innovate UK and Research Councils. Cover: Agri-

Tech, Biomedical, Energy and Industrial Biotechnology. N/A Collaborative R&D Long-standing TSB/Innovate UK scheme – promotes

industry/academia links

£320m Knowledge

Transfer Networks Long-standing TSB/Innovate UK scheme - addressed to businesses and higher education and research institutes in order to build partnerships and stimulate active participation in the technology transfer network.

£320m

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

Long-standing TSB/Innovate UK scheme, involving 12 other supporting bodies. – person focused collaborative projects between academic and business partner.

£119m Innovation &

Knowledge Centres

Based in universities, these are centres of entrepreneurial excellence which aim to create early stage critical mass in an area of disruptive technology. Seven IKCs have received funding (for 5-years) since 2007.

N/A

Higher Education

Innovation Fund HEFCE (and versions supported by Devolved Administrations) – promotes third mission activities by universities £600m CASE awards Research Council-funded postgrad studentship in partnership

with businesses and public sector bodies.

N/A Knowledge

Transfer Accounts EPSRC scheme, used flexibly by universities, aimed at better exploitation of EPSRC-funded research. [Relatively small scale scheme]

N/A Knowledge

Transfer Secondments

EPSRC - support secondment of EPSRC-funded staff into organisations or to host researchers from industry. [Relatively small scale scheme]

N/A

In October 2013, under the banner ‘Innovation Scotland’, Scotland launched the Single Knowledge Exchange Organisation (SKEO) and in November 2013, it launched a new framework for entrepreneurship and innovation in November 2013 called Scotland Can Do. It also runs Interface, a free, national service which match-makes businesses with research resources in Scotland’s universities and research centres with the aim of supporting the establishment of a number of Innovation Centres where businesses and universities can work together. In addition, the Northern Ireland Executive has been working on the development of Competence Centres (Cunningham, 2015).

The 2012 Wilson review set out some 54 recommendations on organisational, management and leadership changes, as well as skills development, while recognising 'a significant improvement in the level and quality of business-university collaboration during the last decade'. The uptake is ongoing and considered only the starting point for work to improve business-university collaboration to ensure graduates are enterprising and prepared for the world of work, to ensure that research and innovation opportunities are fully exploited for UK plc, and to maximise the contribution of universities to local economic growth.104 _{University funding under the Research Assessment Exercise in 2014}

for the first time included an assessment of impact, of which collaborations with business

104 _{https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/32399/12-903-following-up-wilson-} business-university-collaboration-next-steps.pdf

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can form an important part. The more recent Dowling Review105 _{pointed out how this}

appears to be changing the way such collaborations are viewed and valued.

Many of the programmes have undergone several evaluations incl. meta-evaluations, receiving generally positive outcomes (hence longevity of many programmes). Examples of long-standing measures include Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, Collaborative R&D, Knowledge Transfer Networks and Research Council CASE awards. The new approaches being added have not yet been evaluated.

In 2014, the UK Government provided £15m in capital – with twice as much funding from other sources, including private sources – to four pilot University Enterprise Zones (UEZ) to encourage university-business interaction, support the development of incubators and create a space for businesses combined with a wrap-around business support offer.

There is evidence of a strong degree of public-private collaboration as shown by EU and national data, however there is still scope to improve these interactions, notably supporting the commercialisation of public R&D, knowledge exchanges through intersectoral researcher mobility, start-ups and collaborations between the universities and businesses.

The UK considers the issue of university-business collaboration in the context of wider economic and competitiveness goals. National and devolved-government programmes are in place to support a broad range of linkages and collaborations. Actions are also undertaken at the regional and university level to support engagement.

Although the benefits of collaboration to both sides are recognised, the recent 2015 Dowling review outlined new areas for attention such as sectoral weaknesses in knowledge transfer and the complexity and range of schemes. This builds on the previous Wilson review which highlighted there are “too many businesses that are not reaping the rewards” of business-university collaboration.106