ROLE & VALUE OF SCIENCE ENTERPRISE CENTRES
When I launched the Science Enterprise Challenge almost two years ago, the intention was to establish a number of world class centres, devoted to entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer in the fields of science and technology. As a result of that Challenge we now have a dozen centres established around the UK, involving a total of 34 universities and colleges, and funded to the tune of £28.9 million.
But we need more and that is why the Government in the recent White Paper has allocated a further £15 million to set up more Science Enterprise Centres.
Already, the activity generated by the centres has made a significant difference to the level of enterprise awareness in UK universities. New courses in entrepreneurship are being delivered to science students and newly appointed staff are working within university departments to identify promising ideas for exploitation. However, in the UK we do not have a long tradition of teaching management and entrepreneurial skills, and so I hope that all Science Centres will take advantage of the Cambridge/MIT National Competitiveness Network to learn from MIT's success in this area.
The science base of the UK is second to none, and this is reflected in the success achieved by British firms in high tech industries such as pharmaceuticals, aerospace and computer technology. But we need many more scientists and engineers who also have management and entrepreneurial skills. We have many world class scientists and engineers, but we need to have many world-class scientific entrepreneurs. And this is where Science Enterprise Centres can play a vital role.
The principle of networking and co-operation is exemplified by the Mercia Institute for Enterprise, which is perhaps the most ambitious collaboration of all of the Science Enterprise Centres. The eight universities involved bring varying strengths to the venture, providing a world class knowledge base in Engineering and Science, proven skills in commercialisation, and extensive links to industry.
The recent appointment of Professor Stephen Hagen as director will enable the institute to make rapid progress, building on the foundations laid over the last year by Dr Tony West and Professor Stuart Palmer. I am confident that we will soon be reaping the benefits, both in the West Midlands and nationally, of the new generation of entrepreneurs that is about to emerge. I therefore take great pleasure in being here today to launch the Mercia Institute for Enterprise.
MESSAGE WITH A REGIONAL FLAVOUR
You have produced a highly professional Regional Innovation Strategy here in the West Midlands.
I am delighted that this work involved a broad and inclusive partnership, which is important in ensuring that different views and perspectives are taken into account from the outset.
The many individual projects and activities within the RIS offer the opportunity to develop firm relationships between the academic sector and industry, which is important in ensuring that the region and the country as a whole benefits from the Government's investment in the Science Base.
THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY - WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
It has been nearly two years since we produced our Competitiveness White Paper "Our Competitive Future - Building the Knowledge Driven Economy." The analysis we set out in that document is proving correct, and UK industry is moving rapidly into new knowledge-intensive industries and products. Biotechnology, opto-electronics, mobile telephony as well as aerospace and pharmaceuticals. But Government and Industry in other countries are also moving fast, and that is why we will shortly be producing a new White Paper to help British industry move even faster into knowledge economy and study and map of industry clusters in the U.K. This I hope will help RDAS focus their efforts on the key clusters in their areas.
We are living through a period of massive industrial change. New technology such as genomics, ITC and new materials are creating new industries, and revolutionising those that already exist. Globalisation is exposing industries to new competition. It creates opportunities for some, but also threatens UK jobs if we do not respond.
Government cannot and should not resist these changes -successful economies and societies are those that are flexible and creative and can adapt to the demands of rapid change.But Government does have a responsibility to help communities and individuals manage change so that the effects are not traumatic or so disruptive that they hold back economic growth.
The Government is committed to creating the right environment for success and to enable innovation and enterprise to flourish. We can now build on strong foundations, which we have put in place since 1997. Inflation and unemployment are at a 25-year low. The public finances are strong. Employment is at record levels. Economic stability has contributed to an increase in business investment and R and D.
But we must do more. We must attack weaknesses in our workforce skills, we must improve the access of start-ups to venture capital, we must provide more incubators for high-tech businesses and we must develop better links between universities and industry. At the same time we must create opportunities for communities and regions hit by restructuring in traditional industries and encourage the emerging and fast growing sectors of the future.
Success in both manufacturing and services is vital. There are plenty of profitable opportunities in manufacturing which we should seize. We have many manufacturing businesses which lead the world, are innovative and use leading edge techniques. But we need more such companies. The same applies in the service sector.
Our vision is for a United Kingdom in which opportunities can be seized in all communities and regions and by all parts of society. That means a tax system which gives incentives to all, an educational system which gives educational opportunities to everyone and a regional policy which gives employment opportunities to all who want to work.
THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES
In the knowledge economy universities have a key role to play. In the globalised economy, capital is mobile, technology can migrate quickly, and goods can be made cheaply in low cost countries and shipped to developed markets. Britain cannot compete simply on low labour costs, the supply of raw materials, or land. Now, more than ever before, business must seek competitive advantage by exploiting capabilities which its competitors cannot easily match or imitate. These distinctive capabilities must be knowledge, skills, and creativity. Capabilities which help generate high productivity business processes, and high value goods and services. Our ability to compete successfully as a nation depends on our ability to create an economy that is genuinely knowledge-driven.
That is why universities must be at the heart of our productive capacity. They are powerful drivers of technological and other changes. They have become central to local and regional economic development. They foster people with knowledge and skills. They generate new knowledge and import it from diverse sources. And they apply knowledge in a range of different environments. They are the seed-bed for new industries, products, and services, and they are at the hub of the business networks and industrial clusters of the knowledge economy.
Universities have been viewed traditionally as creators of knowledge, trainers of young minds, and as the transmitters of culture. To these established roles we must add a fourth: universities as a major agent of economic growth. As the Prime Minister has said, "in the knowledge economy, entrepreneurial universities will be as important as entrepreneurial businesses, the one fostering the other".
DIVERSITY WITH EXCELLENCE
In his Romanes Lecture a little while ago, the Prime Minister spoke of "diversity with excellence" as a key principle for this Government's policy towards all aspects of education.This principle must be at the core of our thinking.
Excellence with diversity means a greater diversity of missions.A change from the status quo. Because if they are to deliver genuine excellence, universities and colleges need to play to their strengths. Strengths which may lie in teaching, research, or knowledge transfer, or some combination of them. That is why we introduced the Third leg of funding, starting with HEROBIC and continuing with the Higher Education Fund. If a university wants to focus on world-class teaching and knowledge transfer it now has the incentives to do so.
However, it is vital to stress that commercial exploitation can never come at the price of academic excellence. Indeed the two are bedfellows. Those universities with the greatest record of unhindered academic pursuit, of pure "blue skies" research are typically the most successful in creating spin-off companies and new businesses. (Examples of MIT, Stanford and Berkeley). Making sure universities exploit their brilliance should never be seen as an attack upon academic rigour or the disinterested pursuit of the researcher.
SCIENCE & INNOVATION WHITE PAPER
It is the Government's strategy to ensure that there is full exploitation of our extraordinary high quality knowledge base, and speed up the rate of innovation. Success depends on how well our assets of knowledge, skills and creativity are exploited. The role of Government is not to pick winners, but to create and maintain the right supportive climate in which innovation and enterprise can thrive. This is what we set out to do in the White Paper we published last July entitled 'Excellence and Opportunity - a science and innovation policy for the 21st Century'.
If Government is to create and maintain the right supportive climate in which innovation and enterprise can thrive it must be an active participant: as an investor, facilitator and regulator of science and innovation.
CONCLUSION
Let me leave you with a clear message: The knowledge economy is here today. In Britain we have a great tradition of scientific excellence, creativity and innovation, the key building blocks of the knowledge economy. We must use them effectively at all levels. Science Enterprise Centres like the Mercia Institute for Enterprise are one of the key mechanisms for ensuring that the intellectual capital generated in our universities is effectively used in a way which delivers economic success, and which helps us to build a healthier, safer society, a cleaner environment and a dynamic knowledge economy for the 21st century.
|
