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Planning and partnership
This issue of eIQ explores how R&D planning processes are evolving in our increasingly complex world. We take a further look at relationships between industry and academia, through the eyes of practitioners on both sides of what we hope are gradually eroding barriers. We examine the impact of the local environment on R&D effectiveness and consider what the logical steps after clustering might be, and offer insights into how the intellectual property landscape is changing. Our Country Profile focuses on Slovenia, which currently holds the EU presidency and gave us Janez Potocnik, European commissioner for science and research.
I want to highlight our plans for an Effective Global R&D Focus Group. This programme aims to help members develop a first-hand understanding of issues surrounding the internationalisation of R&D. We've put together a great team to manage and mentor the Focus Group, and invite members to join the Group and help form the critical mass that will make the venture succeed.
In detail, the contents are as follows:
This article discusses changes in R&D planning processes in the face of a number of factors which make effective planning more complex. Drawing on discussions at the January 2008 Representatives' Round Table, it describes approaches companies take to support their position in new geographic markets, and to collaborate more effectively at sector and European level. It considers the value of engaging with the policy discussions that set the context for R&D, and how megatrends are changing research horizons. The article also looks at a new funding mechanism from the European Investment Bank, and considers one company's efforts to plan its personnel resources more effectively.
Feature - Can the Innovative Medicines Initiative strengthen Europe's pharmaceuticals sector
The scientific and market-related developments taking place in other parts of the world are challenging Europe's pharmaceutical sector. IMI, as the first of a series of major European Joint Technology Initiatives, is meant to overcome some of the barriers in the drug discovery process and thereby reinforce competitiveness. Its success requires that strong competitors from different parts of the innovation system learn to collaborate effectively. This article explores how they are approaching the challenge and asks what others can learn from the approach.
Feature - The butterfly and the plough
EIRMA places great importance on collaboration between industry and public research, seeing this as a key tool for knowledge exchange and R&D effectiveness. This article reviews progress three years after the launch of the Responsible Partnering initiative, backed by EIRMA and others. Those that have applied the Responsible Partnering guidelines have already learnt valuable lessons, as well as generating ideas for improvements. The article also considers how intermediary organisations can enable collaboration, and the thorny issues of state aid and intellectual property. It concludes by asking how we can develop a skilled workforce that can accelerate collaboration, and by reflecting on the alternatives to today's bottom-up approach.
Government scheme proves a three-way win for industrial/academic collaboration
This article explains how the UK's Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme works and the advantages it can bring. It also gives some examples of the scheme in action.
A Day in the Life of... Pascal Iris, managing director of Armines and chairman of Transvalor
Armines is a contract research association linked to France's leading engineering schools. Transvalor is a subsidiary that commercialises some of its work. Armines was created to improve links between industry and academia, but its hybrid status has made for uneasy relations with its public-sector partners and government master. So how does Iris make open innovation work in an organisation "that fills a gap", as he puts it, where he has to satisfy multiple partners, stakeholders and bosses, as well as the customers?
The Cambridge area, sometimes known as Silicon Fen for its combination of low-lying geography and a Silicon Valley-like culture, has become one of the world's best known innovation clusters. But what makes Cambridge in particular, and clusters in general, work?
by Professor Arnoud De Meyer, professor of management studies at Cambridge University and director of the Judge Business School
View from the debate over clustering
Hubs, clusters, technopoles – whatever you call them, these special places are supposed to foster intense collaboration. But are there even more effective collaborative environments, and how would you recognise one?
by Prof Philip Cooke, Centre for Advanced Studies, Cardiff University, and Development Studies, University of Aalborg
IP - Innovation takes centre stage
Having embraced the importance of innovation, the member states of the OECD are exploring the growing role of intellectual assets for value creation and the opportunities for new market mechanisms fully to realise the beneficial effects of intellectual property rights – and developing policies to reflect this.
by Richard Johnson, chairman of the OECD/Business and Industry Advisory Council intellectual property and innovation taskforce
IP - French move cuts the cost of European patents
The cost of using European patents to gain widespread protection across the region will fall thanks to France's ratification of the London Agreement earlier this year.
Slovenia is committed to growing its home economy through rapid modernisation and the uptake of science and technology.
The Effective Global R&D Focus Group
EIRMA is planning a two-year programme of meetings and learning trips that will help R&D managers discover the best ways to access the wealth of talent that is emerging from the universities, research organisations and companies of developing economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Leif Kjaergaard, president
EIRMA