Technology Innovation Centres (TICs): Background

1. Technology Innovation Centres (TICs): Background Duncan Bremner

2. Background • Hermann Hauser was commissioned to look at • ‘The Current and Future Role of Technology and Innovation Centres in the UK’ • by Lord Mandelson Secretary of State (BIS) • Why? • The UK has a strong track record in science and innovation • UK has four of the world’s top six universities • UK produces 12% of all cited and 14% of the most highly cited papers • UK is recognised as one of Europe’s ‘Innovation Leaders’ • But…. ‘…it has long been acknowledged that UK has not sufficiently capitalised on these strengths to capture economic benefit. This is in part down to a critical gap between research findings and outputs, and their development into commercial propositions.’

3. Why are they needed? • There is a gap in the innovation cycle (TRL 4 - 6) within the UK • Intention is for TICs to bridge the gap

4. International Comparisons* • A shared rationale exists for developing TICs that bridge the gap between academic discovery and commercial exploitation…with long-term, sustained and predictable flows of public funding • It is common for TICs to be focused on sectors or technologies which capitalise on local and national strengths rather than have a wider spread of institutes in many technology or sectoral fields. • The workforce is recruited from the academic and private sector and possesses research, technology development and commercialisation skills * ETRI (Korea), ITRI(Taiwan), IMEC(Belgium), Fraunhofer(Germany), DARPA(USA), AIST(Japan)

5. What will a TIC do? • It is a physical centre with substantial investment to establish world-leading capability and global impact, in pre-commercial development. • It provides access for business to the best technical expertise, infrastructure, skills and equipment that would otherwise be outside the reach of individual companies. • It will provide an environment in which multi-disciplinary teams from a diverse range of backgrounds can work together to: • access to world leading technology and expertise • reach into the knowledge base for world-leading science and engineering • undertake collaborative applied research projects with business • be able to undertake contract research for business • be strongly business focused with a highly professional delivery ethos • create a critical mass of activity between business and the knowledge base • provide skills development at all levels

6. TIC Implementation • Technology Strategy Board (TSB) are tasked with delivering TICs in UK, 3 have already been selected: • High Value Manufacturing over 6 sites (not preferred model) • Cell Therapies (full applications by 2nd September) • Offshore Renewable Energy (25 August for EOI) • Second phase - 3 new areas are being considered from: Complex systems Digital media/creative industries Future cities Future internet systems Resource efficiency Photonics Sensor systems Smart grids and distribution Space Transport systems and integration  • TSB will down-select 3 in December 2011 for further work: • Favourites(?): Sensor Systems, Space, Transport Systems

7. TIC selection criteria The TSB will examine the applications based upon the following selection criteria: • the potential global markets which could be accessed through the centre are predicted to be worth billions of pounds per annum • the UK has world-leading research capability • UK business has the ability to exploit the technology and make use of increased investment to capture a significant share of the value chain and embed the activity in the UK • enable the UK to attract and anchor the knowledge intensive activities of globally mobile companies and secure sustainable wealth creation for the UK • should be closely aligned with, and essential to achieve, a national strategic priority (energy, ageing population, ICT etc)

8. Funding operational model • TSB favour the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 model; centres will need to generate their funding broadly equally from three sources: • business-funded R&D contracts, won competitively • collaborative applied R&D projects, funded jointly by the public and private sectors, also won competitively • core public funding for long-term investment in infrastructure, expertise and skills development • It is envisaged that each centre will have a turnover of around £20-30m, with between 100 and 200 highly qualified staff each. Centres will need to attract around £10m to £15m per annum from business to be viable • The TIC must be led by industrial partners

9. RCUK support for the Hauser report

10. Scottish Enterprise involvement • Scottish Enterprise are closely aligned with TSB activities • In part, they represent TSB activities in Scotland • SE have been actively supporting TICs and possible TIC bids from Scottish companies • SE supported the SFC Horizon bid for the S3C proposal and will be a board observer to the S3C • SE, similar to Universities, cannot lead a TIC bid but can facilitate the process • They have held a TIC workshop, attended by UoG along with other interested parties • Presently forming a small working group to focus on the challenges of preparing a bid • SE understands that sensor systems are critical to Scotland’s economy

11. Opportunities for Glasgow • The University has: • an extensive portfolio of sensor systems activity • been awarded an SFC grant for the S3C in sensor systems • good industrial linkages to sensor companies • good linkages with RCUK to inform strategic direction • There appears to be a desire to align the strategic objectives between RCUK and TSB to improve the competitive position of UK plc • We can continue to work closely with Scottish Enterprise to support any industrial efforts to lobby the TSB to consider a sensor systems TIC • demonstrate our expertise and our industrial connections

12. Thank you