Marshall, Alison, Quinlan, Patrick and Berry, John (2013) Supporting
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Insight - University of Cumbria Marshall, Alison, Quinlan, Patrick and Berry, John (2013) Supporting regional growth from the higher education community: the Energy Coast Campus Programme in West Cumbria. InImpact: The Journal of Innovation Impact, 5 (1). pp. 104-115. Downloaded from: http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/2813/ Usage of any items from the University of Cumbria’s institutional repository ‘Insight’ must conform to the following fair usage guidelines. Any item and its associated metadata held in the University of Cumbria’s institutional repository Insight (unless stated otherwise on the metadata record) may be copied, displayed or performed, and stored in line with the JISC fair dealing guidelines (available here) for educational and not-for-profit activities provided that • the authors, title and full bibliographic details of the item are cited clearly when any part of the work is referred to verbally or in the written form • a hyperlink/URL to the original Insight record of that item is included in any citations of the work • the content is not changed in any way • all files required for usage of the item are kept together with the main item file. You may not • sell any part of an item • refer to any part of an item without citation • amend any item or contextualise it in a way that will impugn the creator’s reputation • remove or alter the copyright statement on an item. The full policy can be found here. Alternatively contact the University of Cumbria Repository Editor by emailing [email protected]. InImpact: The Journal of Innovation Impact : ISSN 2051-6002 : http://inimpact.innovationkt.org Special Edition on Innovation through Knowledge Transfer : Vol. 5 No.1 : pp.104 - 115 : inkt13-011 Supporting regional growth from the higher education community: the Energy Coast Campus Programme in West Cumbria Alison Marshalla, Patrick Quinlanb, John Berryb. aFaculty of Health & Wellbeing, University of Cumbria, Bowerham Road, Lancaster LA1 3JD, UK, [email protected]. bFaculty of Arts, Business and Science, Energus Building, Lillyhall, Workington CA14 4JW, UK. Abstract West Cumbria is a predominantly rural, but post-industrial region undergoing a transition from one that has been dominated by heavy industry over a 200 year period. The regional economy has latterly been dominated by one of the world’s largest nuclear technology hubs, which continues to influence the structure of the economy. The region has aspirations to evolve a high technology manufacturing base, with a continued strong role for nuclear, but with a more diversified economy, including an expanded focus on low carbon and renewable energy generation. The region has aspirations to evolve a high technology manufacturing base, with a continued strong role for nuclear, but with a more diversified economy. As part of this strategy, a large investment has been made to build a higher education community in this largely rural area, to support its strategic objectives to promote innovation through applied research, research demonstration, enterprise, business support, skills and training and other transformational actions. Three case studies are described in detail: the Cumbrian Centre for Health Technologies (CaCHeT), the Sustainable Energy Technology Group and the Knowledge Action Network (KAN). The lessons learned are evaluated and presented, with details of future plans. 1. Introduction West Cumbria is a region that faces significant challenges, but which also has a major opportunity to take advantage of government investment in future energy security and in diversification as part of the decommissioning of Sellafield, one of Europe’s largest nuclear technology hubs. A specific area, comprising the districts of Allerdale and Copeland, has been targeted for investment. Britain’s Energy Coast (BEC) is a public body that has been formed to lead and manage a regeneration programme and receives funding from the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency, Sellafield Ltd and Nuclear Management Partners, with an aspiration to create 3000 jobs. BEC covers an area of 800 square miles, over half of which lies within the boundary of the Lake District National Park with 70 miles of coastline. The total population size is over 166,000, of which the working age population is 103,500. There are 6,400 enterprises operating over a diverse range of sectors, although many are within the supply chain to the major employer, Sellafield Ltd. The strategy for economic development of West Cumbria includes an aim to strengthen the role and presence of higher education within the region. Transformational actions have been and will continue to be supported that meet innovation objectives of applied research, R&D demonstration, enterprise, business support, skills and training. Copyright © 2013 Future Technology Press and the Authors 104 Supporting regional growth from the higher education community: the Energy Coast Campus Programme in West Cumbria Alison Marshall, Patrick Quinlan, John Berry For the period 2008-2013, an investment of £10m was made in the Energy Coast Campus Programme [1], managed by the University of Cumbria. Three of the projects funded under this investment are described as case studies in this paper. Alongside the economic strategy, there are distinct health and wellbeing needs for the population. These include issues in delivering the ‘closer to home’ strategy to a rural, dispersed population, the increasing focus on chronic illness management and the needs of an ageing population. At a strategic level, these issues are addressed by the North East-North Cumbria Academic Health Science Network and the Local Education Training Boards of Health Education England. 2. The role of higher education in regional development Just as castles provided the source of strength for medieval towns, and factories provided prosperity in the industrial age, universities are the source of strength in the knowledge based economy of the twenty first century. Lord Dearing, September 2002 ‐ ‐ Over the recent 20-30 years, higher education has changed its role, as society and industry has developed and higher education itself has evolved to meet new challenges. Government priorities in the UK for university-business interaction for economic growth have been guided by key reviews. The Lambert Review in 2003 [2] highlighted the importance of knowledge transfer and skills exchange, alongside more traditional research and technology transfer activities. The potential for universities to contribute to regional development was discussed in detail, with recommendations to strengthen policy and funding mechanisms for this. Nearly 10 years later, Sir Tim Wilson undertook a similar review in 2012, within a very different environment financially and politically. The Wilson Review [3] focuses much more on skills development, student experience and work experience in industry. At a time when regional development agencies no longer exist in the UK and in the year after Government subsidies of course fees were withdrawn, the contribution by universities to regional growth takes place in a very different economic context. The ways in which universities in the UK have responded to these challenges have been various and have had varying degrees of success. In the first flush of the entrepreneurialism by universities in the 1980s and 1990s, the emphasis was very much on exploiting research outputs as spin off companies and the expectation was that investors, universities and the inventors would all get rich as a result, providing a way to sustain future activities. In more realistic times, and in response to identified needs of both large and small companies at a regional level, the types of engagement broadened significantly. The concept of a region as an ‘innovation system’[4] through which policy makers can engage enables all organisations, including universities, to define their role, is useful. A report by the World Bank in 2001 [5], identified at least four critical successful factors for a regional innovation system: an economic regime that provides incentives for the creation and efficient use of knowledge; an education and training system that provides educated and skilled people, able to create and use knowledge; 105 Supporting regional growth from the higher education community: the Energy Coast Campus Programme in West Cumbria Alison Marshall, Patrick Quinlan, John Berry an innovation system that comprises networks of firms, research centres, universities and other organisations able to adapt global knowledge to local needs and opportunities; a dynamic information infrastructure that enables effective information sharing. The types of interaction between academia and business, especially at a regional level, have developed significantly with the influence of specific funding mechanisms from national and EU government. Universities have the potential to provide a resource for regional business that is objective, scholarly and ‘joined up’, if ‘virtuous circles’ are possible for both the region and the university, in which both sides get a ‘return on investment’ [6]. For universities, financial ‘return’ is closely related to direct income from teaching and indirect income from ‘research excellence’ (in the UK, core government funding for research is allocated against a periodic review under the Research Excellence Framework [7]). For regions, return is linked to competitiveness of local businesses. The