Written evidence submitted by Cambridge
100 Group (TIC 73)
1. INTRODUCTION
The Cambridge 100 is a business networking organisation
founded on the principle that members benefit from getting to
know each other and exchanging ideas. Its membership includes
founders, managers and supporters of some of the most innovative
businesses in the region. The aim is that businesses in and around
Cambridge should benefit from better access to each others' skills
and experience. In order to encourage openness and freedom of
information, all Cambridge 100 meetings are conducted under Chatham
House Rules.
2. BUSINESS/UNIVERSITY
LIAISON
The Cambridge 100 membership also includes University
Business Liaison staff. Some members have had close connections
with the erstwhile i10 organisation which had, until
its recent closure, the mission of facilitating practical mutual
liaison between businesses and all the ten universities in the
East of England. The aim was the application of university research
results and resources in Business and Industry. The Cambridge
100 finds the closure of i10 rather puzzling in
the context of the new Technology Innovation Centre (TIC) initiative.
3. FRAUNHOFERS
AND TECHNOLOGY
RESEARCH
- It is our understanding that Fraunhofers aim
to conduct research that leads to innovative products and processes,
with various specialisations for each centre. By contrast, in
the UK and elsewhere, much university research, even in technological
departments, tends, quite justifiably, to follow its own lines
of investigation in accordance with the agreed departmental research
topics and staff interests and reputations.
- Whilst university research may well eventually
find applications in Business and Industry, the application process
poses the challenge that in many cases the research result turns
out to be a solution seeking a problem to solve. This puts the
cart before the horse: faster results can normally be achieved
for Business by the more conventional approach of first defining
the business problem or customer need and then working out a solution.
- It is our understanding that the Fraunhofers
tend to work in this more effective way, of starting with the
problem and aiming for a direct solution. They hence can provide
a more prolific source of research benefits for Business. It would
be our hope that any forthcoming TICs would conduct research aimed,
like the Fraunhofers, more directly towards innovative growth
in Business.
- To this end, it will be important that the TICs
are managed by experienced business people with a strong commercial
culture, rather than by academic leadership.
4. THE IMPORTANCE
OF INFORMAL
LIAISON AND
NETWORKING
It is our practical experience that the value of
informal contacts between universities, research organisations
and businesses is often underestimated. The Cambridge100, with
its background in facilitating such informal networking, recommends
that each TIC should embrace a strong commercially-aware network
in which business leaders, service providers, business-orientated
university staff, and researchers from the TIC itself can meet
to better understand each other's aims and cultures
Our experience suggests that the knowledge and insight
so gained from appropriate networks would accelerate the commercialisation
of research and hence increase growth from profitable innovation
in UK Business.
Dr Martin H Jones
Chair
Cambridge 100
3 December 2010
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