Posted By
Spencer Thompson
15 December 2011
Yesterday some of the leading lights of Britain’s creative industries gathered at the Big Innovation Centre for what a lively and energetic meeting of an extended group whose membership centred on members of the UK Creative Industries Council (CIC) and representatives of the Big Innovation Centre sponsor group.
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Posted By
Big Innovation Centre
15 December 2011
Watch Will Hutton's speech at the European Innovation Convention 2011.
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Posted By
Spencer Thompson
14 December 2011
This week saw the halving of the government’s ‘feed-in tariff’ subsidy for solar panels come into effect. This move was controversial on a number of counts. It is argued there was no proper consultation on the decision to bring the date of the tariff change forward from April, and that, combined with promises of ‘special help’ for the UK’s carbon-intensive industries in the Autumn statement, it has compromised the coalition’s promise to be the ‘greenest government ever’. The rationale for the decision by the Department of Energy and Climate Change was that consumers, hit hard by the cost of utilities in recent years, could no longer afford to foot the bill through a levy on their bills.
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Posted By
Prateek Sureka
13 December 2011
The recent launch of the Government’s Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth at the Big Innovation Centre by the Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, was, in their own words, a “multi-million pound package setting out the Government’s plans to boost economic growth through investment in research and innovation”. One of the highlights of the strategy is the establishment of an ‘Open Data Institute’ (ODI).
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Posted By
Charlotte Holloway
09 December 2011
In the week that the European Union moved closer to a fiscal union, with negotiations and summits on the ongoing debt crisis continuing to dominate the news reel, the Big Innovation Centre descended on Brussels for the first European Commission Innovation Convention.
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Posted By
Jackie Parkin
09 December 2011
Innovation in healthcare delivers wellbeing on many fronts; not only the societal and financial benefits of a healthier population, but also growth unleashed from a flourishing Life Science industry. In principal the UK should be highly successful, with research in Biomedical Sciences amongst the best in the world and a strong pharmaceutical history. But the reality is that UK has punched well below its weight in transforming breakthrough ideas into medicines and health care. The opportunity loss cannot be overstated. The Government’s Strategy for UK Life Sciences announced this week was therefore eagerly awaited and did not disappoint.
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Posted By
Andrew Sissons
08 December 2011
Today’s Innovation and Research Strategy is a very good document. It is the first time that the government has set out a broadly coherent account of what makes our economy grow, and what government’s role in this might be. Of course, there is room for improvement, but this strategy could be a first step to developing a growth strategy that is fit for the 21st Century.
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Posted By
Lizzie Crowley
07 December 2011
Innovative cities can drive the economic recovery. Innovation – the successful commercialisation of new ideas – is the key driver of economic growth. Cities are where this happens; they support the development of new products and services by bringing businesses, people and institutions (such as universities) together. Despite this, and at odds with the localism agenda, recent government policy has sought to centralise some the key levers needed to support innovation and growth.
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Posted By
Teresa da Silva Lopes and Paul Duguid
05 December 2011
Living in a world characterized by fierce competition and saturated markets is leading twenty-first century multinationals to look for new ways for growth and survival. Both large leading multinationals and small and medium entrepreneurial enterprises collaborate through the creation of open innovation and intellectual property (IP) landscapes, and share their resources, know-how, compounds and technology. The BIG Innovation centre recently launched in September 2011, is evidence of such collaboration. Having already attracted leading multinationals as partners, it aims to facilitate the collaboration between businesses, universities and other institutions, and the government, and act as a key contributor to policy making and to the development of the UK as a global innovation hub.
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