Towards Better Exploitation and Economic Impact:

Developing the EPSRC Partnership with the University

Vince OsgoodAssociate Director, Economic Impact

EPSRC

EXPLOITATION AND ECONOMIC IMPACT Towards Better Exploitation

• Context

• Vision and priority

• Delivering the vision

• Conclusions and way forward

• Issues for discussion

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• Support high quality basic, strategic and applied research, and related postgraduate training • Advance knowledge and technology to meet the needs of users and beneficiaries

• Thereby contribute to the UK’s continued economic competitiveness and quality of life

EPSRC PurposeContext

TOWARDS BETTER EXPLOITATIONContext

• Realising our Potential White Paper, 1993 • Lambert review, 2006 – business-university engagement• DTI Innovation review, 2006• Ten-Year Science & Innovation Investment Framework, 2004 – “output 2”: Better Exploitation• Next Steps, 2006 – “step change” in exploitation• Warry report, 2006 – increasing the economic impact of the research councils• Sainsbury review, 2007 – Race to the TopChange of government focus from KT to economic impact

TOWARDS BETTER EXPLOITATIONCurrent Position

• Starting from a strong KT base of activity, but not complacent

40% of research project portfolio collaborative with 2,000 organisations 40% of research studentships on projects scoped by business strategic partnerships with 30 organisations in 20 activities

•Strategic Plan, 2006 – partnerships are key

• KT & Economic Impact strategy, 2007 – published after community consultation

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TOWARDS BETTER EXPLOITATIONVision

For the UK to be:

• The best place in the world in which to engage in research and innovation

• Equally renown for knowledge transfer and innovation as it is for research discovery… while sustaining research excellence and quality

Excellence through impact – research & people

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KT & ECONOMIC IMPACT STRATEGY

› Build on the changing environment in universities

› Increase engagement with research user stakeholders & strengthen partnerships to improve KT

› Collaboration & co-investment with TSB

› Raise visibility of KT & economic impact

› Measure effectiveness of the strategy

› Shape RCUK KT & economic impact strategy

TOWARDS BETTER EXPLOITATIONDelivery Plan Priority

• Knowledge transfer embedded in all 7 Delivery Plan themes

• Activities includes research collaborative with business & other user organisations, business led postgraduate skills development, knowledge transfer & people flow

• £840M over three-year period – £500M through two focused user-influenced programmes

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TOWARDS BETTER EXPLOITATIONDelivery Plan, 2008-2011

Key objectives:• Accelerate research exploitation through TSB & ETI• Mission programmes form bridges with key stakeholders to exploit research • Increase targeted, user focused PhD training• Enhance knowledge & people flow through partnerships & funded initiatives• Publicise opportunities for & successes in KT

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SUMMARY OF ECONOMIC IMPACT BASELINEDelivering highly

skilled people into the wider economy

34% EPSRC-supported PhD students take up initial employment in business and public services i.e. over 2,500 of our current students

1,700 PhD students are supported in collaborative training partnerships involving 230 user organisations

Delivering benefits to business through the exploitation of excellent research

159 licences and patents and 104 spinout companies have arisen from EPSRC research assessed over the last 2 years

Over 2,000 user organisations are currently collaborating on EPSRC research grants

77% of users were satisfied with the research grant partnership in which they had been involved

28 organisations engage with EPSRC through Strategic Partnership agreements

Delivering benefits to government and public services

Benefits include: better healthcare, improved transport, flood control, crime prevention, anti-terrorism, and combating climate change

TOWARDS BETTER EXPLOITATION Key Strategies

• Increase business-focused skills development/ postgraduate training

• Accelerate the exploitation of research outputs to enhance business pull and address societal grand challenges

• Enhance opportunities for follow-on activities

TOWARDS BETTER EXPLOITATION Increase business-focused skills

development/postgraduate training

Training more aligned to business requirements:

• Engineering doctorates – expand into other disciplines• Knowledge Transfer Accounts – with signposting to encourage KTPs, post doc secondments into collaborating companies, strategic masters• Industrial CASE directly to companies, KTNs, RDAs/DAs• Collaborating partner training using Doctoral Training Accounts• Entrepreneurship training

TOWARDS BETTER EXPLOITATION Accelerate the exploitation of research outputs

Enhance business pull & address societal grand challenges:

• Expansion of strategic partnerships, especially with Technology Strategy Board, Energy Technologies Institute• Development of business engagement around centres of excellence – Innovation & Knowledge Centres; Innovative Manufacturing Research Centres• Collaborative research projects supported in the responsive mode

TOWARDS BETTER EXPLOITATIONEnhance opportunities for follow-on

activities

Promote opportunities to commercialise research outputs from EPSRC supported research:

• Business Plan Competition• Work with Regional Development Agencies/Devolved Administrations and venture capital companies• Follow-on Fund• Industrial Fellowships – with Royal Society

TOWARDS BETTER EXPLOITATIONSuccess Features

• Demonstrate economic impact – a challenge

• Need help of business (IP exploiters) and universities (IP generators) – partnerships are key

• Case studies of success stories – improve flow of impact evidence and good news stories to EPSRC – Connecting with Business

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TOWARDS BETTER EXPLOITATION Conclusions and the Way Forward

• EPSRC’s relationship with the University is crucial if together we are to deliver knowledge transfer and economic and societal benefit to the UK.

• How can we work more effectively together to make the partnership work?

• Draw up an action plan to strengthen the partnership

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TOWARDS BETTER EXPLOITATION Issues for Discussion

• Recognising the University’s strengths in KT & how EPSRC can help the University to build on these

• Sharing information on KT successes, significant business relationships, key performance indicators & other evidence of impact from EPSRC investments

• Developing best practices in building business collaborations, reducing KT barriers & negotiating effective intellectual property agreements