Written
evidence submitted by N8 Research Partnership (TIC 45)
1. What is the Fraunhofer model and would it be
applicable to the UK?
1. The Fraunhofer Institutes perform applied research
and technology transfer in specialised areas, for example biomedical
engineering and applied polymer research. They focus on applied
research (TRL 3-8), and are funded through a combination of core
public and private contract financing.
2. There are over 50 Institutes in Germany, and each
has autonomy over the research programme and finances. The Institutes
are located in key industrial regions in the country, but are
not geographically restricted, and serve clients on a national
and international basis. They have strong relationships with their
partner universities.
3. The starting point for the UK should be the policy
objective: maximising the translation of scientific ideas and
our world class science base into new industries and commercial
opportunities.
4. The Fraunhofer model is one policy response to
serve this objective: creating specific, physical centres focused
on technologies or sectors to bridge the gap between discovery
and commercialisation.
5. This model could be developed in the UK, involving
significant core funds to create new organisations, which would
then be supplemented by public and private contract research funding.
This approach may be result in an infrastructure which is detached
and isolated from the UKs world class research base.
6. Other models to serve the policy objective could
include creating critical mass and a concentration of expertise
through;
- Coordinating a virtual network of research centres
/ expertise that currently exist in RTOs and universities
- Enhancing university based translational research
centres, to ensure the co-location of research activity along
the technology readiness scales
7. It is important to take account of the context
of national research and innovation systems. The decentralised
and autonomous model of the Fraunofer Institutes reflects the
nature of the dispersed innovation, governance and political systems
in Germany. It is important that the design of any national Institutes
or Centres in the UK, are context specific to the national innovation
system and the key actors within it - large companies, small businesses
and research intensive universities.
2. Are there existing Fraunhofer-type research
centres within the UK, and if so, are they effective?
1. Firstly, there are centres operating in the UK
that are effective in undertaking translational research and development.
Examples are cited in the Hauser report, including the Advanced
Manufacturing Research Centre, co located with leading materials
and metals research expertise at Sheffield University.
2. It is clear that Centres are most effective when
there is a co-location of research and development activities
across technology levels 1-3 and 4-7 (see the Hauser report page
5). This avoids the artificial and organisational separation of
fundamental research from development and ensures cross fertilisation
and maximisation of spillovers from a research portfolio which
is addressing technology challenges at a basic and applied level.
3. As the UK has effective translational research
centres that exist, policy objectives in this area could be better
served by building on existing capability where best practice
exists for research organisations and universities to collaborate
with industry. Setting up new research institutes may inadvertently
create new organisational boundaries, and the models that are
developed need to ensure we maximise existing capability, relationships
and best practice
4. Secondly, for translational Research Centres to
be effective in achieving a step change in commercialisation,
they need to be embedded and operate within a broader context.
This would incorporate large scale collaborative R&D, with
the engagement of actors in the supply chains; and provision of
collective business services. The link and alignment to the proposed
Growth Hubs is critical, while the mix and engagement of key actors-
large and small business, across supply chains, plus linkages
to universities and skills providers is critical in ensuring the
effective translation of research.
3. What other models are there for research centres
oriented toward applications and results?
1. The N8 universities have worked to implement alternative
models, aligning "best with best" researchers from across
number of institutions to create multi disciplinary teams of critical
mass and scale to work with industry.
2. This maximises capability and creates a "premier
league" of UK research assets, to work with industry partners
on a range of research challenges, creating the model of a "virtual
corporate lab" for large and small businesses.
3. Our universities are involved in a number of these
Centres including
- Advanced Manufacturing Nuclear Research Centre
- Rolls Royce, Sheffield and Manchester (2 physical sites and
virtual network)
- N8 research centres - Regenerative Medicine and
METRC - have maximised research capability and expertise wherever
it is located across the North to allow companies to access multi
disciplinary teams through a single point
4. This is potentially a more efficient and effective
model as it is focused on maximising the capabilities that exist
and supporting the flow of ideas and people rather than establishing
new organisations and structures which inhibit these spillovers
and artificially separates research at TR1-3 and 4-7. These Centres
operate with basic science as a key driver of technology, supporting
the cross fertilisation of ideas through a fluid fundamental and
applied research portfolio.
5. To support innovation and application of basic
research, it is important to recognise that a rigid linear model
of innovation will inhibit the flow of people, ideas and resources.
Alternatively focusing on our existing assets and capabilities,
will require minimal additional investment in new structures and
process, and focuses resource on enhancing the world class research
and tech transfer capabilities that are already in place.
4. Whose role should it be to coordinate research
in a UK-wide network of innovation centres?
1. The coordination of the network of Centres through
Technology Strategy Board would seem sensible route and maximising
existing delivery infrastructure and networks that have been created.
2. The governance of the Centres should involve the
range of stakeholders on a Management Board including large and
small businesses, universities and international partners.
3. Both the TSB and the Centre Board should oversee
a well developed and resourced evaluation system which includes
standard reporting methods as well as client surveys, international
reviews and technical specific studies that act to both promote
and manage the Centres.
5. What effect would the introduction of Fraunhofer-type
institutes have on the work of Public Sector Research Establishments
and other existing research centres that undertake Government
sponsored research?
1. The PSRE need to be effectively connected
to the network of TICs (and growth hubs) or they may become separated
from the technology direction set by Government and essential
to the recovery of UK business.
2. Too narrow a technology focus for the TICs
could lead to less investment in broader (enabling) research and
innovation.
3. An inclusive collaborative approach (virtual)
is essential to ensure that significant public investment in research
is successfully translated into commercial success.
DECLARATION OF
INTERESTS
N8 is a group of the eight most research-intensive
universities in the North of England: Durham, Lancaster, Leeds,
Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York. The partnership
can access significant research capability - together the N8 universities
employ over 8,200 academic staff and generate more than £650m
in research income per anum. 90% of the research at N8 universities
is rated as international quality or above (RAE 2008). Several
of the examples detailed in the report by Dr Hermann Hauser feature
universities in the N8 partnership.
Sarah Jackson
Director
N8 Research Partnership
2 December 2010
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