UK punching above its weight says Director General of Knowledge and Innovation
The UK is a recognised global leader when it comes to higher education and research, said Sir John O'Reilly, Director General of Knowledge and Innovation, at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), at last night’s 3rd Cambridge Wireless (CW) Prestigious Lecture. “We have some of the best universities in the world and we generate more research per head of population than any other country. At the same time our reputation for harnessing innovation has been growing rapidly in recent years,” said Sir John.
Stressing the importance of the ‘knowledge triangle’ of research, innovation and higher education, Sir John put the case for strong engagement between these three key drivers – across academia and business – as a powerful engine for economic growth in the context of the UK’s Industrial Strategy. “In the past, the UK has been criticised for its failure to fully exploit UK research, seeing this through innovation to market success,” he told the audience. “But while to some extent that may have been true, it is clear that things are changing and we have seen steady improvement in our position in a number of global rankings of nations relating to innovation.”
The UK was recently ranked 3rd in the 2013 Global Innovation Index (GII), published by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO, a specialized agency of the United Nations).
Underlining how industry, government and academia need to continue to work together to ensure conditions are conducive to innovation, Sir John pointed to the success of the Technology Strategy Board, the UK’s Innovation Agency, which now has approaching 60% of its funding going to SMEs. He also highlighted other innovation-friendly policy instruments such as the Patent Box scheme and Research and Development (R&D) tax relief for investment in innovation; and he commended the ability of universities to attract research investment from industry as a proxy for quality, used alongside traditional peer review approaches.
Addressing an audience of CW members involved in the research, development and application of wireless & mobile, internet, semiconductor and software technologies, Sir John stressed the importance for academics, industry representatives and policy-makers to establish a portfolio of instruments and exchange mechanisms to respond quickly to today’s knowledge economy and changing patterns of communications: “The research base is part of a wider innovation ecosystem and the interactions between different parts of this system are critical, especially when there is continued pressure on public spending.” He highlighted Cambridge success story ARM and Vodafone as two leading global companies where the ‘knowledge triangle’ had been an important contributor to success.
Before taking up his role as Director General of Knowledge and Innovation in 2012, Sir John O’Reilly was Vice Chancellor at Cranfield University for six years and prior to that had spent five years as Chief Executive for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Delegates at the Prestigious Lecture were invited to provide their own views on how change can lead to greater interaction, mutual understanding, more coherent relationships and strategic partnerships between government, academia and professional bodies. The evening at the Moller Centre in Cambridge, was chaired by Professor William Webb, Cambridge Wireless Board Member and CEO at Weightless SIG (Special Interest Group).