Brains must earn a crust too

We produce some of the best research academics in the world, yet their knowledge is locked away within the hallowed halls of academia.

The UK economy would benefit hugely from the innovation and technology which universities produce, but despite noises from central government about business and academia working together, the vast majority of academic revenue remains untapped.

Yorkshire has 12 higher education establishments - some with world class research and teaching credentials. Almost 80 per cent of the departments at the University of York, for example, were given 5 or 5* ratings fro research, meaning research was of international importance. Three of our universities are within the top 30 in the UK.

Why then is the Yorkshire and Humber region languishing in 8th place for innovation in the UK? Only the North East, Northern Ireland and Wales fare worse.

The answer is that the mindset behind attributing and recognising academic excellence is wrong. Currently the Research Assessment Review is carried out every four to five years. The process involves a panel of 685 people reviewing almost a quarter of a million pieces of research from 56,000 academics.

On the back of this huge bureaucratic exercise approximately £1 billion of research funding is allocated to UK universities. Incredibly nowhere is a university’s contribution to business or the economy mentioned.

In 2002 the government’s Investing in Innovation report stated that: “In an increasingly knowledge-driven global economy invention and innovation are critical to Britain’s long-term competitiveness. This requires a virtuous circle of innovation: from the very best research in science, engineering and technology in universities and science labs to the successful exploitation of new ideas, new science and new technologies by businesses.”

Currently the allocation of research grants appears to miss half of this “virtuous circle”. Yes, it assesses the quality of research, but it takes no account of “successful exploitation”.

In common with other sectors, higher education is subjected to league tables which institutions desperately try to climb. Research ratings play an important part along with other factors such as teaching quality assessment and entry standards.

However if we look at how university’s are ranked by employers the results are strikingly different from the usual research/teaching quality league tables published in five of the national broadsheets – the Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, The Times, and the Sunday Times.

For example the University of York is ranked from second (in the Daily Telegraph) to eighth (in the Financial Times). However when surveyed by 200 firms which regularly recruit graduates York’s ranking slips to twenty-ninth.By contrast, Leeds University is ranked between twenty–second (in the Telegraph) and thirty-fifth (in the Times); when it comes employers Leeds is ranked ninth in the UK.

Of course within Yorkshire there have been significant, if not fundamental, steps towards improving the situation. Three of our university’s have organisations which carry out a commercialisation function. Leeds University works with Techtran and IP2IPO. Sheffield University has two organisations - SUEL (Sheffield University Enterprises Ltd) and Bio Fusion, which is tasked with commercialising the IP output from the Biology and Chemistry departments. York, which is relatively new to the technology transfer game, has employed business development officers to help with its commercialisation activity.

SUEL has spun out 40 companies and created 60 external jobs. Techtran has also had its share of success with high profile spinouts including Syntopix and Potopharmacia under its belt. In York the Science City partnership between the university and the city council has created 60 companies and 2,600 jobs in the wider science and technology sector.

Other organisations such as Connect Yorkshire are also playing their part in helping young technology companies grow and become successful businesses contributing to the regional and national economies.

There have been some spectacular successes. BioFusion, spun out of Sheffield University, floated on AIM and raised £8.2 million. Bradford Particle Design, started by Dr Gwyn Humphreys of Bradford University in 1995 was acquired by Inhale Therapeutic Systems for £137m. Molecular Skincare, founded by Dr Simon Ward of Sheffield University, was brought by York Pharma for around £5.5 million.

These are fantastic achievements, but they are achieved despite the pervading culture of academic institutions and not because of it. To fulfil our national and regional potential we need fundamental changes in how we evaluate our universities. We must not be squeamish - the rest of the UK runs on capitalist money making principals and we cannot afford for our top brains not to.