Select Committee on Treasury Written Evidence


Memorandum submitted by London Technology Network

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  London Technology Network (LTN) has created new structures, systems and capabilities all targeted at increasing the number and quality of interactions between companies and the technology research-base of London's Higher Education Institutes.

  In 2003-04 LTN generated 622 negotiations between companies and research scientists:

    —  421 of which were between partners who had never worked together before; and

    —  236 of which resulted in collaborative projects being initiated.

  There are many other qualitative and quantitative output measures, all showing a significant and growing propensity for interaction between businesses and research-based academics facilitated by the LTN.

  LTN has achieved these high levels of output by delivering on a very focused mission to link companies (from anywhere in the world) to the technology research base in London: most of the companies actively engaging have bases in London and surrounding regions.

  The key operating principles LTN applies, which may be different from other organisations include:

  1.  Working exclusively with:

    (a)  a uniquely trained and supported network of research scientists (100+) each representing their department which delivers world-class research with the knowledge of, but not via, their technology transfer offices (20+ institutions); and

    (b)  senior executives from technology-using companies (of any size).

  The rationale is that the best advocate technology is the technologist him/her self, and the best buyer in a company of external technology-based expertise is the senior executive responsible. The inappropriate intervention of an by other stakeholders before these principle partners have a common understanding can impede, or prevent, an interaction from ever happening.

  2.  Employing staff who are industry experts and whose role is to directly support:

    (a)  industry executives to develop projects which would benefit from working with academic research scientists and vice versa; and

    (b)  research scientists to develop appropriately targeted responses to project requests from industry and vice versa.

  The rationale is that it is essential to provide expert assistance to ensure that industrialists and academics have common expectations of what each will contribute to, and gain from, any interaction. This assistance must be delivered rapidly before the parties meet and needs to inform their thinking before and during any collaboration. Introductions must be filtered as neither party has sufficient time or energy to waste on inappropriate meetings or discussions.

  3.  Above all, LTN is an "honest broker" in that it:

    (a)  shows all project briefs to all potential partners (inc technology transfer offices);

    (b)  shows all responses to project briefs to the project owner; and

    (c)  is absolutely neutral, having no financial interest in the outcomes of any introductions made.

  This last operating principle is absolutely essential to the role of any "market maker" or intermediary. Unless an intermediary is seen to be impartial, unbiased and expert they will not be used: charging on the basis of transaction outcomes creates a natural bias and significantly reduces their effectiveness.

BACKGROUND OF LONDON

  London is the most productive region in the UK, consistently adding over 20% more value per filled job and 30% more per head than the UK average.[57] London accounts for over 30% of the UK's knowledge economy, private sector-led industries where graduates make up at least 25% of the workforce.[58]

  London's universities employ over 9,500 of the UK's 48,000 academic researchers, over 5,000 of which publish in technology related subjects (eg Design, Computing Science, Physical Sciences, Biological Sciences) at the higher Research Assessment Exercise ratings of 4, 5 or 5*.[59]While London's university research may represent 25% of the UK's HEI research base, it is comparable in size to that of MIT or Stanford Universities in the USA.

  So why do companies need help exploiting the research expertise and outputs of London's HEIs?

  London's ~250,000 businesses, over 16% of the UK total, actually lag on innovation. Only 18% of London's enterprises introduced new products between 1998 and 2000.[60] London's businesses contribute only 7% of the national expenditure on R&D.[61] On the innovation supply side, beyond the well-known premier league of London universities that employ less than half the researchers in London, the visibility of good research is quite limited.[62] London is a large component of the UK economy and research base, so improving the commercial exploitation of its publicly funded research is important both regionally and nationally.

LONDON TECHNOLOGY NETWORK GOVERNANCE, STRUCTURE AND FOCUS

LTN Governance

  London Technology Network was formed:

    —  in 2002 as a not-for-profit Company Limited by Guarantee;

    —  as a partnership between London Business School and University College London;

    —  with London Business School as "Accounting Officer";

    —  with support from many other universities in London; and

    —  to work with the pan-London university research base on an absolutely open and equal basis.

  Since formation, LTN has:

    —  expanded its Board to include members from other universities in London;

    —  raised £4 million from the central government (HEIF stream from HEFCE);

    —  raised £2 million from the EU and LDA to operate an "Innovation Relay Centre"; and

    —  raised £0.9 million from HEFCE and the LDA (subject to contract).

LTN Structure

  LTN's structure seeks to match business demand with university supply:

    —  LTN employs and supports 100+ research-based academics as "Business Fellows" in targeted departments rated as 4, 5 or 5* in the latest Research Assessment Exercise in London's universities ensuring engagement exclusively from departments deemed to be researching at, or near to, "world-class" in either the development of new technology-based innovations or in their implementation into new products, processes or services.

        Business Fellows work with their research-active fellow academics to:

      —  map all the interactions which their departments may wish to have with businesses; and

      —  act as the initial contacts for relevant business enquiries.

        LTN is working with 100+ departments from 20+ research institutes (and their technology transfer offices) accessing a research base of significant scale and scope. (see Appendix A).

    —  LTN Marketing and Events team organises invitation-only monthly events on specific technology topics (eg biomedical imaging, oncology, sustainable transport) that attract around 100 attendees of whom 50 are senior industry executives and 50 are senior academics.

    —  LTN staff visit business executives to discuss their needs, identify appropriate ways that academics could help, and pass enquiries to Business Fellows and Technology Transfer Offices.

LTN Focus

  LTN focuses on stimulating an increased number, variety and quality of interactions between business and London universities' research base:

    —  Lack of industry pull/demand was highlighted by Lambert.[63]

        LTN focuses on helping senior executives in technology-intensive companies understand where and how they may be able to reduce time, money and risk from interacting with the academic research base. This is achieved both in one-to-one meetings and at sector specific meetings.

    —  Enhance the supply capacity of the university research base.

        LTN has formed new systems and structures within the university base to increase its ability to work with industry—see the section above titled LTN Structure.

    —  Address the mismatch between industry demand and university supply.

        Individual executives in technology-intensive companies need support in identifying which of their many projects may be enhanced by interacting with research-based academics and vice versa.

        LTN assists both business people and academics prepare project proposals for working with counter parties ensuring that they set realistic expectations of what both parties will need to contribute and gain from the collaboration.

        LTN then promotes these projects to the relevant community generating as many high quality responses as it can, again helping responses to be drafted which correctly address all the key deliverables and expectations of the proposal.

        LTN subsequently facilitates and coordinates meetings with academics and technology transfer officers as requested by the companies.

  LTN deliberately restricts its focus on the following basis:

    —  Exclusive focus on interactions between business and the university research base.

        LTN has designed and operates a system building interactions between businesses and university-based researchers in 4, 5 and 5* departments.

        Businesses and universities can gain significant mutual benefit from interactions outside the research base; either with non-research parts of research-intensive departments or with departments which are not research-intensive. LTN does not assist these interactions as our experience shows that they involve different individuals in both the business and university operating with non-parallel motives and mechanisms to their research-intensive colleagues causing there to be little, if any, synergy.

    —  Exclusive focus on interactions targeting technology innovations and expertise.

        LTN works with a very wide range of businesses and university departments.

        LTN does not intermediate between businesses and departments researching in the humanities, arts, classics, etc as this would require different skills within LTN, different individuals from the business community and different modes of interaction between them and their university partners. We consider that there are no synergies to justify the divergence in focus.

    —  Strict focus on "market-making".

        LTN's mission is to help companies (based anywhere) access the research base as efficiently, effectively and economically as possible. Once suitable demand from a business has been generated we market it to as many departments as possible which can credibly deliver suitable solutions. While London's research base is our core supplier, we have passed demand to organisations in other regions better suited to the projects.

    —  The requirement to be absolutely "mechanism neutral".

        LTN gives exactly the same level of support to all types of interactions between businesses and universities whether they involve the transfer of cash between the partners or not: LTN does not charge for its services and has no commercial interest in the outcomes of its networking. This is essential if businesses and academics are to accept LTN as an honest and commercially disinterested partner and is enabled by LTN being funded by the LDA, central government and the EU.

        By contrast, University Technology Transfer Offices naturally focus on interactions which promote their particular university (rather than university interaction in general) and which gain revenues for their offices (eg licensing and spin-out) rather than suiting the aspirations of the researchers and industrialists which may have no direct and immediate revenue potential (eg joint publication and student placement) but which may develop into longer term relationships and collaborations.

LONDON TECHNOLOGY NETWORK OUTPUTS AND OUTCOMES FOR THE YEAR 2003-04

  Business demand for interacting with the academic research base through LTN is strong, with many senior technology attendees from London, the UK and beyond attending LTN events and asking for specific support. This has resulted in a mass of new relationships between academics and companies as shown below.

ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS ATTENDANCE AT LTN EVENTS (2003-04)
Attendee level CEOR&D Business DevelopmentOther
Board7912 117
Senior Manager78 4864
Manager/R&D Eng 1134492
Total %15%39% 20%26%

Company sizeLondon South EastOther UK Non-UK
SME8764 234
National >250 staff13 88
Multi-national >250 staff42 51148
Total142123 4512


ANALYSIS OF COMPANY-UNIVERSITY INTERACTIONS (2003-04)
SourceAll projects New to department% New
LTN181158 87
Bus Fel19899 24
University9054 13
Other153110 25
Total622421

Team sizeProjects% projects
121134
218029
311318
4437
5+7512
Total622


  Of the 622 negotiations initiated above, a remarkable 236 (38%) have been initiated as collaborative projects.

CONCLUSIONS

  LTN addresses lack of industry pull for university technology-based expertise by understanding the business executive's needs for every project it supports. In addition, LTN's aggregation of the regional HEI supply capacity gives businesses access to a scale and scope of expertise which would otherwise be too complex, confusing and time consuming to justify their effort.

  LTN addresses the potential unwillingness of the HEI sector to work with businesses by training and supporting a large cohort of research scientists across the sector to act departmentally giving new information on what their colleagues are willing and able to do with business. By targeting business enquiries to identified research scientists when it is already clear that the enquiry matches their capabilities and aspirations, a significantly higher success rate is achieved in both relative (%) and absolute (number) terms. The LTN role is absolutely compatible with the role of Technology Transfer Offices, which are advised of all projects and intervene whenever they deem it relevant.

  LTN's role as an honest and impartial broker is fundamental to gaining the trust of all the key stakeholders without which the process as a whole would fail. While being a Company Limited by Guarantee and not-for-profit clearly help, funding which permits LTN to be financially disinterested in the outcomes of individual HEI-industry collaborations and interactions is critical.

  The LTN process has resulted in many businesses engaging with departments for the first time. While it is too early to discern any impact on regional productivity, demand from business appears strong and most businesses (of whatever size) report that they will be repeat customers for LTN.

  Only a minority of the interactions between university-based research academics and industrial counter parties target, or result in, the creation of new IPR so uncertainty over the sharing of IP rights is not a major inhibitor for most interactions. This confirms research data from the USA which indicates that companies need to have worked with academics on a number of projects before they will commission research generating new IP[64]and that even companies who licence IP from universities gain greater value from other interactions than they do from the licences per se.[65]

APPENDICES

A: LIST OF THE DEPARTMENTS HAVING LTN BUSINESS FELLOWS

Birkbeck College

Computer Science.

Crystallography.

Brunel University

Biological Sciences.

Information Systems and Computing.

Cleaner Electronics Research.

Mechanical Engineering.

General Engineering.

City University

Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.

Computer Science.

Goldsmiths College, University of London

Design.

Media and Communications.

Imperial College London

Reproductive and Developmental Biology.

Computing.

Material Science.

Electronic Engineering.

Physical Sciences.

Engineering.

Civil Engineering.

Immunology.

Chemical Engineering.

Molecular Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Paediatrics.

Biological Sciences.

Academic Surgical Unit.

Mathematics.

Earth Science and Engineering.

Biological Sciences.

Physical Sciences.

Chemistry.

King's College London

Neuroscience Research.

Motility & Cytoskeleton Group.

Radiological Sciences.

Physics.

Institute of Psychiatry.

GKT Dental Institute.

Oral Medicine and Pathology.

MRC Centre for Development Biology.

Computer Science.

Neuroscience.

Mechanical Engineering.

Pharmacy.

Kingston University

Arts and Social Sciences.

London Institute

London College of Fashion.

Commerce and Enterprise.

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Infectious and Tropical Diseases.

London South Bank University

Food Science.

National Physical Laboratory

NPL Materials Centre.

NIBSC

Division of Haematology.

Bacteriology Division.

Public Health Laboratory Services

Enteric and Respiratory Virus Lab

Queen Mary, University of London

Computer Science.

Electronic Engineering.

Mathematics Sciences.

IRC in Biomedical Materials.

Physics.

Engineering.

The Ernest Cooke Clinical Microvascular Unit.

Experimental Therapeutics.

Royal Holloway, University of London

Information Systems Group.

Physics.

Psychology.

Biological Sciences.

Royal Veterinary College

Silsoe Research Institute.

School of Pharmacy

Pharmacology.

Centre for Drug Delivery Research.

South Bank University

Electronic Engineering.

St Georges Hospital Medical School

Biochemistry, Immunology and Cardiological Science.

Cellular and Molecular Medicine.

The Institute of Cancer Research

Cancer Research UK Centre.

Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research Group.

University College London

Computer Science.

Oncology.

Geomatic Engineering.

Biomaterials.

Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research.

Electronic and Electrical Engineering.

Pharmacology.

Mechanical Engineering.

Physics and Astronomy.

Civil Engineering.

Bartlett School of Architecture.

Mathematics.

Biology.

Anatomy and Developmental Biology.

Rheumatology Unit.

Chemistry.

Hepatology.

Slade School of Fine Art.

London Centre for Nanotechnology.

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Multimedia Production Centre.

University of Greenwich

Materials—Chemical and Life Science.

University of Westminster

Electronic Engineering.

Centre for Media, Arts and Design.

B:  EXAMPLES OF COMPANY UNIVERSITY PROJECTS

1.   Collaborative research projects

  Kodak's Harrow based R&D lab is eager to access the latest technologies and research in the move from silver to silicon. Eleven senior Kodak researchers have attended London Technology Network's targeted networking events to explore potential collaborations with LTN Business Fellows. So far, this collaboration has resulted in two research projects and series of other engagements programme.

2.   Student Placements and funding PhDs

  Electronic Arts, the world's largest computer entertainment provider, wanted to invest in academic research to shorten development cycles and gain access to future recruits for the company. Thanks to London Technology Network, a pre-existing informal relationship with the Department of Computer Science at University College London (UCL) has developed into a fully-fledged, commercial research collaboration on visualisation and modelling.

    "The London Technology Network provides a vital service, ensuring that businesses and academics really benefit from each other's expertise."

    Ian Shaw, Chief Technology Officer, Electronic Arts

3.   Material testing and advisory services

  The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has two DTI- funded projects underway in the measurement and performance of biomaterials, and required commercial material for testing. Cook Surgical, a division of the leading healthcare device company, has a novel cellular matrix product for soft tissue repair, and required access to new areas of the surgical market. Following an introduction by London Technology Network, Cook Surgical agreed to supply NPL with testing material for calibration, whilst its sales and marketing manager joined the NPL Industrial Advisory Group.

September 2004





57   www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme economy/LabourProductivity.xls. Back

58   www.dti.gov.uk/training development/natrepfd.pdf. Back

59   195.194.167.103/Results/all/all.xls. Back

60   www.london-innovation.org.uk/jumpstart/jumpstart brochure.pdf. Back

61   www.statistics.gov.uk/j)pfdir/berd1 103.pdf. Back

62   www.lda.gov.uk/uploaded files/documents/18 523 UnlockinigPotential-KnowledgeCommmercialisation.pdf. Back

63   www.hmtreasurv.gov.uk/media/EA556/lambert review final 450.pdf. Back

64   www.autni.net/pubs/journal/00/perspectives.pdf. Back

65   www.researchoninnovation.org/tiip/archive/2003 5c.htm. Back


 
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