Examination of Witnesses (Questions 495-499)
TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY
BOARD
20 NOVEMBER 2008
Q495 Chairman: Good morning gentlemen.
Welcome to this final evidence session in the Committee's long
running inquiry into the higher value-added economy. You are very
important witnesses. You have come up a lot during our discussions
over the last year so we are looking forward to hearing what you
have to say. Can I begin, as I always do, by asking you to introduce
yourselves for the record?
Mr Gray: Iain Gray.
I am Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board. I have
been in position for just over 12 months after having spent some
28 years in the aerospace sector.
Mr Hutchins: I am Graham Hutchins,
Director of Operations and Services. I have been with the Technology
Strategy Board since the beginning of July 2007 having spent 17
years in industry with FedEx, Vodafone and a small SME.
Mr Bott: I am David Bott, Director
of Innovation Programmes. I was 27 years in BP then Courtaulds
and then ICI.
Q496 Chairman: I know one member
of the Committee, apart from the Chairman, who is thrilled to
hear you all have commercial backgrounds. How much does that characterise
your organisation?
Mr Gray: For me, Chairman, it
is a fundamental of the organisation. There is a very big difference
in terms of the way we tackle things. There are some 75 people
in the organisation, probably three-quarters of them with previous
business experience and indeed one of our boasts is 610 years
cumulative business experience around the senior team. So it is
very much a characteristic and a characteristic we want to make
dynamic and stick with as we move forward.
Q497 Chairman: I hope the Committee
does not think I am prejudging our report by saying that that
is commendable. There is always an issue about where organisations
like yours sit in the great scheme of things and how you relate
to things. When the new department was created you were a creature
of that new department DIUS. Innovation and technology are matters
of such central importance to business that I think there is a
strong case for saying that perhaps you have the wrong parents,
but I am sure that you have very effective relationships with
all the key players. You will tell me that the cross-departmental
working is marvellous and the RDAs all know exactly how to get
on with you but will you reassure me how you manage to coordinate
all these different bodies and have a coherent approach.
Mr Gray: We are a new organisation
and I think we have been given the very privileged role of being
a key interface between government, business and academia. In
many respects the fact that we have been established as an independent,
an arm's length sort of relationship, is more important than which
organisation itself we were in. One of our objectives is actually
very much, as you say, to work across government departments.
That is the spirit of the organisation and the support we are
given. We are under the sponsorship of DIUS. We have a very, very
close relationship with BERR, in fact many of the technologists
and senior civil servants in BERR were the originators of the
Technology Strategy Board idea. So that relationship with BERR
is hugely important. I think the key thing about the organisation
is this sort of leadership role and it is a leadership role that
goes across government departments in the innovation space but
also goes across the RDAs, the devolved administrations, the research
councils in the exploitation and innovation side of the spectrum
and a number of different partnership organisations. You can have
a great assurance that our objective is to grasp that leadership
opportunity. From a pure DIUS point of view it is actually very,
very exciting to see how the skills agenda and the technology
exploitation agenda have come together because they are probably
two of the key issues for us.
Q498 Chairman: We want to talk about
skills, as you would expect, later on; Julie Kirkbride will be
asking those questions. It is a bit like herding cats, is it not,
with all these different organisations, government departments,
RDAs and their competing agendas? Let me give you an example.
You talk about nanotechnology as one of your priorities. I come
from the West Midlands where we want quantum technology to be
a priority which is all the work that is being done on the QinetiQ's
proposals for a quantum technology centre. How would you relate
to a proposal like that which is not on your list?
Mr Gray: That is a very good example
in actual fact of part of our remit. If you look through the strategy
what we have established is some very key technology centres of
focus, nanotechnology as you rightly say is one of them. You will
also see that one of the key aspects of what we are about is what
we call emerging technologies, it is identifying those new disruptive
technologies that are going to come along. We are very much in
dialogue with QinetiQ, as it happens, in your region to see how
we can move that forward. I would say that one of the objectives
of the organisation is to keep the technology pipeline full in
some of the existing technologies but really, really work and
identify the future disruptive technologies. That is core to what
we are about.
Q499 Chairman: You split up your
budget into three headings: challenge-led innovation, technology-inspired
innovation and innovation climate. You are also an advisor to
government. How important is that role? How do you express an
advisory role?
Mr Gray: One of the key facets
of our organisation is the pivotal role we play between government,
business and academia in the innovation space. There is a great
tendency for people to focus in straightaway in terms of funding
and looking at us as a funding agency. One of the big messages
we are feeding back out to business is that as an organisation
we are much, much more than just a funding agency. We can influence
things like regulation where we can see regulation being a key
stimulant to innovation; we can see how standards can play a very
key role in promoting innovation. We can identify those sorts
of areas across government where potentially procurement can play
a very big role. So the advice and influencing role is very much
a key part of what we are about. Indeed, the title of our strategy
which is Connect and Catalyse is trying to portray a message
which is significantly beyond that of just being a funding agency.
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