APPENDIX 12
Memorandum from Momenta (a division of
AEA Technology plc)
INTRODUCTION
1. Momenta is pleased to respond to the
call for evidence by the House of Commons Science and Technology
Select Committee on the subject of Research Council support for
knowledge transfer.
2. Momenta has over 30 years experience
in working at the interface between the knowledge base, business
and the public sector and, during that time, has established a
sound understanding of the broad-ranging stakeholder needs and
drivers. Momenta provides strategic advice, programme and project
management helping to put government policy into practice. Examples
of knowledge transfer programmes undertaken by Momenta on behalf
of UK government are the management and delivery of the Knowledge
Transfer Partnerships (KTP), the BIO-WISE and the Envirowise programmes.
3. We have developed extensive first-hand
experience of knowledge transfer through our involvement with
these and other major government programmes, as well as in work
for government undertaken elsewhere within AEA Technology plc
(eg on national and international atmospheric emissions inventories,
air quality modelling, monitoring and forecasting). As a private
sector organisation we are able to recognise the industry perspective
and comment from our own experience on the particular needs of
UK business.
PROMOTION OF
COLLABORATIVE WORKING
BETWEEN RESEARCHERS
AND PARTNERS
IN INDUSTRY,
INCLUDING IN
THE CREATIVE
INDUSTRIES AND
IN SMES
4. We acknowledge the efforts being made
by the Research Councils to encourage collaborative working between
researchers and industry. For example, EPSRC has set specific
targets for increasing expenditure on collaborative projects and
the number of doctoral students involved in collaboration. However,
we see little indication that the choice of collaborative partner
is being guided by national need or indeed any clear strategy,
other than one of partnering with selected R&D-intensive companies.
5. Studies show that even innovative companies
in the UK make relatively little use of the research base as a
source of innovation, [6]and
we believe that it is in this context that "promotion of
collaborative working" should be addressed. Achieving clear
objectives, such as the broadening of collaboration to support
strategic national interests and policy, is partly a marketing
challenge and partly a challenge in changing behaviour. In Momenta's
view, meeting such challenges lies outside the current experience
of the Research Councils and needs to be "bought in"
from specialist organisations.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
AND COMMUNICATION
6. Successful knowledge transfer should
be, above all, a two-way process between the research base and
industry. Yet it is largely effected at present through technology
"push" from academia (driven partly by pressure to exploit
intellectual property), rather than by any "pull" from
industry. One reason for this is the very low awareness in industry,
and particularly amongst SMEs, of what knowledge is being generated
by the research base and how it might be exploited to competitive
advantage of companies. The move by some Research Councils to
establish knowledge brokerage, or equivalent, units is a step
in the right direction, but it falls short of the need for professional,
sustained and targeted marketing and engagement with the business
community.
7. Drawing on Momenta's experience with
government, businesses and the public, we are aware that marketing
to disparate groups (and especially SMEs) requires communications
strategies, stakeholder engagement at appropriate levels, communications
plans and effective implementation. Stakeholder engagement and
communication is a two-way process and, to work properly, requires
sustained connectivity and not simply "networking" through
a largely one-way flow of information. This is another area of
expertise that in our view needs to be "bought in" by
the Research Councils through the services of a specialist organisation.
RESULTS AND
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
8. Collaboration and knowledge transfer
between researchers and industry can, and does, take many different
forms, including managed initiatives such as Faraday Partnerships
as well as partnerships forged directly between the parties. The
Research Councils continue to introduce new initiatives that add
to the wide range of mechanisms already available. We believe
that there is an urgent need to take stock of which collaborative
mechanisms work, and which don't, through an evidence-based study
of the knowledge transfer process, and that this study should
guide all future knowledge transfer initiatives, as well as the
consolidation of existing ones into a simpler, proven scheme.
9. We recognise the progress made by the
Research Councils in introducing knowledge transfer metrics into
their Delivery Plans. However, we are concerned that what is being
measured is largely activity rather than outcomes, and that the
metrics are inappropriate for assessing the benefits to the UK
taxpayer accruing from the considerable investment in both research
and knowledge transfer. The Knowledge Transfer Partnerships programme
has 30 years of experience in delivering effective knowledge transfer,
using well-established metrics relating to outputs, and in recent
work developing metrics for longer-term outcomes. Momenta recommends
that the Research Councils should seek to learn from this experience
in developing more relevant outcome-related metrics for the research
that they fund.
CO -ORDINATION
BETWEEN THE
COUNCILS AND
THE ROLE
OF RCUK
10. We note RCUK's remit to "coordinate
and harmonise increased engagement in innovation and knowledge
transfer by the Research Councils". RCUK has a clear role,
therefore, in coordinating the promotion of collaboration, stakeholder
engagement and the development of outcome-related metrics through
the "bought-in" services recommended above. We believe
that there would be advantages in providing such services at RCUK
level, acting for all the Research Councils, in order to deliver
improved knowledge transfer through a single access point for
industry, while achieving economies of scale by avoiding multiplication
of effort.
11. Finally, we believe that knowledge transfer
needs to be made an integral part of the grant approval, monitoring
and review process, with the aim of achieving an equivalent level
of quality in knowledge transfer as in research. Momenta believes
that this will require the introduction of a formal peer review
process for knowledge transfer proposals, equivalent to that already
in place for the research component. In other words, the knowledge
transfer component of research proposals should be reviewed by
knowledge transfer professionals, in the same way that the research
component is reviewed by an academic of sufficient standing and
experience. It would be RCUK's role to coordinate such a change.
15 February 2006
6 The recent CIS3 survey reports that of the 44% of
enterprises with innovation activity during the period 1998 to
2000, only 5% identified Higher Education Institutions as sources
of knowledge or information important for innovation. Of the enterprises
reporting some form of innovation co-operation during that period,
only 9% were partnered with Higher Education Institutions. Back
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