Hermann Hauser's recommendations to government on innovation

02 April 2010

Secretary of State Lord Mandelson has announced Government support for the development of a network of technology and innovation centres that Dr Hermann Hauser has recommended will help deliver the industries and jobs of the future.

Dr Hauser was commissioned to conduct a review into how the UK could learn from other countries’ innovation networks and his report "The Current and Future Role of Technology and Innovation Centres in the UK" was published on 25 March.

Commenting on the report, Director General, Dr Wendy Piatt said:

“The presence in the UK of internationally-recognised technology and innovation centres could make an important contribution to future economic growth.  This country has the potential to become a world-leader in exploiting transformative new technologies such as regenerative medicine, plastic electronics, renewable energy and advanced manufacturing, for which there are large and growing global markets.

“But as the report suggests, to achieve maximum impact the new centres will need to be closely linked to the world-class research base within the country's leading universities. 
 
“There are already many successful examples of universities and businesses working in close partnership to generate exciting new technologies with enormous economic potential.  For example, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre at University of Sheffield is a world-class facility where academics are working alongside business partners from the aerospace and nuclear industries to develop technology-driven solutions for UK manufacturing.  The Clinical Imaging Centre at Imperial College is driving forward drug discovery and development through state of the art clinical imaging, in partnership with GSK.

“The new centres should build on this kind of existing capacity and decisions for the location of these centres should be based on proven academic expertise and industrial capability.  We look forward to engaging with the Government and the Technology Strategy Board as they take forward the implementation of the report’s recommendations in the coming months.”

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