{"id":638,"date":"2009-04-30T15:40:15","date_gmt":"2009-04-30T14:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=638"},"modified":"2009-06-01T06:45:56","modified_gmt":"2009-06-01T05:45:56","slug":"the-connected-university-driving-recovery-and-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=638","title":{"rendered":"The Connected University &#8211; Driving Recovery and Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u201cLord Sainsbury and NESTA are launching a report exploring the vital economic contribution of the UK\u2019s universities today, 30 April 2009.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Lord Sainsbury, Hermann Hauser, co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners and Michael Kitson, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge will debate the role of Universities in regional economic growth. Jonathan Kestenbaum, NESTA\u2019s Chief Executive will moderate.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n<p>I blogged the event live and my notes are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scribblelive.com\/Event\/The_Connected_University_Driving_Recovery_and_Growth_in_the_UK_Economy\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As a summary here is a wordle of my notes:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-642\" title=\"connected-university-wordle\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/connected-university-wordle.jpg?resize=474%2C249\" alt=\"connected-university-wordle\" width=\"474\" height=\"249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/connected-university-wordle.jpg?w=2980 2980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/connected-university-wordle.jpg?resize=300%2C158 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/connected-university-wordle.jpg?resize=1024%2C539 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/connected-university-wordle.jpg?w=948 948w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/connected-university-wordle.jpg?w=1422 1422w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Three key areas for action<\/h2>\n<p>Lord Sainsbury highlighted three important things:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Increasing the scope for technical or business Universities to interact and link with SMEs &#8211; but not all Universities should have same mission.\u00a0 Sainsbury argues that there will be a \u2018Top 30\u2019 of Universities who do \u2018world-class\u2019 research.\u00a0 Other Universities\u00a0 should not compete but differentiate themselves. It\u2019s not necessary to \u2018create new research\u2019 &#8211; but we do need to improve the implementation of existing research.<\/li>\n<li>The importance of science and innovation campuses &#8211; such as RAL, Daresbury, NIMH in St Pancras. Clusters of real expertise and these places can provide tremendous opportunities but it needs government drive to succeed.<\/li>\n<li>FE colleges are important but neglected.\u00a0 Government and RDAs need to focus on this.\u00a0 We need a Further Education Innovation fund (like HEIF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sainsbury concluded by noting \u201cWe can\u2019t predict which sectors new businesses will come from but we can predict that they will come from the high-tech clusters surrounding our Universities.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Who was there and who wasn\u2019t?<\/h2>\n<p>Consideration of the attendees (from the printed guest list) is instructive; representatives from the case studies were there; Cambridge, Southampton, Bristol, Bath, Newcastle, Manchester, Sheffield Hallam, Dundee, Daresbury. And I suppose it would be a bit odd if they weren\u2019t there.\u00a0 Others: Nottingham, Oxford Brookes, Queen&#8217;s Belfast, Wales, Bangor, Imperial, Liverpool Management School, Northumbria, Greenwich, Sussex, Ravensbourne, UCL.\u00a0 Oxford present through Oxford Innovations.<\/p>\n<p>Various representatives of the societies (Royal Society of Chemistry, the Royal&#8230;), RCUK, quangos and consulting odds and sods (like me). \u00a0A few venture capitalists.<\/p>\n<p>Interesting to note the Universities not present and also the pattern of other attendees.\u00a0 I assume (and it seems likely) that the Nesta invitation went out pretty widely.\u00a0\u00a0 Nesta has a good approach to openly promoting their events and in my experience, their events are very well run and the quality of speakers and debate is high.\u00a0 For events of this type, the Nesta CEO, Jonathan Kestenbaum, is very active and visible.<\/p>\n<h2>Better Connections between the Universities and the economy is a UK strategic issue<\/h2>\n<p>Nesta is right to identify the importance of the connections between the Universities and the economy.\u00a0 It\u2019s a big issue for the UK and no matter how good we feel we are at it (and I\u2019d say at best it\u2019s patchy) we need to be better.\u00a0 While there were representatives from HEFCE and DIUS, only 2 RDAs turned up (SEEDA and Advantage West Midlands) and no one from BERR.\u00a0 No Government Ministers.<\/p>\n<p>There was also much talk of the &#8216;Top 30&#8217; universities. This seemed to raise a few hackles!\u00a0 Eric Thomas from Bristol sounded a negative note by indicating that Universities are not &#8216;recession proof&#8217; &#8211; look at what&#8217;s happening in the US.\u00a0 And I think he was right in sounding a cautionary note as I felt that there was too much complacency in the room and too much of an &#8216;even keel&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>As far as Nesta\u2019s report is concerned &#8211; it\u2019s a very valuable contribution and a good source of \u2018food for thought\u2019.\u00a0 But I feel Nesta \u2018pulled its punches\u2019.\u00a0 I think that the evidence in the report could support a much firmer line from Nesta in pushing harder to define what the role of Universities will be in future as part of our economy, as Lord Sainsbury hinted in his remarks.\u00a0 We are in the NBAU world &#8211; there is No Business As Usual and this needs to be true for our Universities just as much as it is for the rest of us.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-638\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=638&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-linkedin\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-linkedin-638\" class=\"share-linkedin sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=638&amp;share=linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on LinkedIn\"><span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-638\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=638&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-tumblr\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-tumblr sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=638&amp;share=tumblr\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Tumblr\"><span>Tumblr<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cLord Sainsbury and NESTA are launching a report exploring the vital economic contribution of the UK\u2019s universities today, 30 April 2009. Lord Sainsbury, Hermann Hauser, co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners and Michael Kitson, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge will debate the role of Universities in regional economic growth. Jonathan Kestenbaum, NESTA\u2019s Chief Executive will &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=638\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Connected University &#8211; Driving Recovery and Growth<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-638\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=638&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-linkedin\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-linkedin-638\" class=\"share-linkedin sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=638&amp;share=linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on LinkedIn\"><span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-638\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=638&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-tumblr\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-tumblr sd-button share-icon\" href=\"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=638&amp;share=tumblr\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Tumblr\"><span>Tumblr<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_typography_data":[],"_editorskit_blocks_typography":"","_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[17],"tags":[18,19,142,45,21,22,20],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2WOwT-ai","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=638"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651,"href":"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/digital-citizen.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}