UK Schools Build Innovation Research Centre

Two UK business schools have set up the UK Innovation Research Centre to analyse how innovation can make businesses more competitive, and help meet social, environmental and economic challenges.

The partners, the Centre for Business Research at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge and Imperial College Business School, established the new centre in response to the government's 'Innovation Nation' White Paper, which aims to build on the UK's performance on research and broaden the government's knowledge exchange agenda.

Research will begin in January, and to support the initiative, the centre will receive £2.8m in direct funding over the next five years from the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills; the Economic and Social Research Council; the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts; and the Technology Strategy Board. An additional £2.2m will be allocated to other research universities able to work alongside the Centre, on a project basis.

In addition to their research, members of both institutions will be involved in developing business practice and policy advice in the fields of innovation and knowledge exchange at national and international levels. Their remit is to ensure that new research on innovation in both the public and private sectors has the greatest effect on policy and practice.

'The UK IRC will explore the relationship between innovation and business performance and how this affects the national economy and the individual organisation,' explained Dr Ammon Salter, Director of Research at the UK IRC and Reader in Innovation Management at Imperial College Business School.

'This will feed directly into both innovation policy and practice, for example in helping to open companies up to new forms of collaboration and policy makers to develop new instruments and strategies to promote innovation and knowledge exchange,' he added.

In addition to building research capabilities, the UK IRC will also disseminate its work through a 'Knowledge Exchange Hub', with activities ranging from seminars to podcasts.

Web sites: www.jbs.cam.ac.uk and www3.imperial.ac.uk .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.