Universities, Business and Knowledge Exchange

2.1 Interventions to stimulate business university interactions
Since 1993, with the introduction of the Realising Our Potential Awards report, there has been an
increased focus by the UK government on the impact of interactions between universities and
business. This has grown in importance as globalisation has increased the perceived importance
of the UK developing an innovative knowledge based economy. More recently there has been
a recognition that other domains of research and sectors such as creative, media and fi nancial
services also contribute to economic growth but the focus of policy remains on science and
technology.
The White Paper Our Competitive Future in 1998 (DTI, 1998) committed the Government to
support business in developing knowledge based competition and made specifi c reference to the
important rôle of universities. Separate initiatives since then have provided funds for universities
to invest in diff erent types of knowledge transfer projects. For example, the University Challenge
Seed Fund launched in 1998 was aimed at projects that moved technology closer to the market
and acted as a springboard for spin out companies. The Science Enterprise Challenge provided
funds for projects in Entrepreneurial Education and Higher Education Reach Out to Business and
the Community (HEROBAC) and its descendant, the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF)
provided funds to universities to improve their interaction with business. HEIF is the current means
of funding and its third generation (HEIF 3) provided some £200m over 2 years from 2006. HEIF 4
allocations for 2008 – 2011 were announced in March 2008, and provide funding to universities
rising to £150m per annum by the third year. Initially funding was allocated on a competitive
basis to stimulate ideas for novel activities, but it has increasingly moved to a formulaic basis
(using a formula based on existing income from business). A review of the impact of HEIF funding
will be completed in late 2008. One of the results of these policies has been the development
of specialised units in universities charged with stimulating interactions with business and this
report will discuss the extent to which they are able to fi ll the key role of “gatekeepers” identifi ed
in the discussion of our fi ndings.
The Research Councils have also become increasingly interested in evaluating the economic
impact of the research they support. They have always been accountable for ensuring that
research outcomes are exploited but until recently this has received little real focus. They
have for some time acted as sponsors of individual programmes such as Knowledge Transfer
Partnerships and in the case of the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC
the ‘Engineering Doctorate’. However the Warry Report (Research Councils Economic Impact
Group, 2006) concluded that their activities were fragmented and there was little meaningful
attempt to evaluate outcomes or share good practice.
2.2 Metrics and evaluation
The metrics that have been used in the evaluation process have to date refl ected a focus on
stimulating transactions. Since 2002 there has been a regular survey of interactions between
business, the community and universities. The Higher Education Business and Community
Interaction Survey (HE-BCI) has collated data from all HEI’s on the nature and extent of their
relationships with business. The metrics in the HE-BCI survey to which most prominence has been
given by policy makers and others are the transactions which refl ect a linear mode of technology
transfer – such as patents, licences and spin out companies.