Programme & Speakers
Innovation Through Knowledge Transfer 2014
This page contains the abstract and biographical notes of keynote speakers. Summaries of special sessions and workshops are also described.
Conference Timetable
The Conference Timetable is available
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Paper Presentation Schedule
A Paper Presentation Schedule for the conference is available
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Keynote Speakers
Professor Tom Barnes
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research & Enterprise) University of Greenwich
Making The Knowledge Triangle Work in Practice
Professor Tom Barnes leads the University of Greenwich's research, enterprise and regional strategies, regionally, nationally and internationally. The university has the highest income for research grants and contracts among post-1992 universities.
Tom Barnes joined the university in January 2008, from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, where he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research). He is a physicist with particular expertise in optical information processing, optoelectronics and adaptive optics. He has won a number of awards for his work including the Cooper Medal of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1996. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1999. Professor Barnes holds several patents and collaborates in research with laboratories in New Zealand, the UK and Japan. British born, he was educated at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, where he studied for a BSc (Hons, Double First), MSc and PhD in Physics.
Liz Shutt
Head of Policy, The University Alliance
Universities and the Research and Innovation Ecosystem: A policy Perspective
The key role played by universities in the UK’s research and innovation ecosystem is increasingly recognised by Government. Following a series of reviews (Lambert, Wilson, Sainsbury, Witty), there is an appreciation of the wider role of innovation and collaboration taking place across the sector and the wider contribution of universities to economic growth. This has intersected with broader policy aims to integrate publicly funded research to the innovation ecosystem, and to drive local and national economic growth through the knowledge economy. This talk will outline the policy landscape against which the role of Higher Education and knowledge transfer is being shaped, at the same time as the direction of funding constraints is being developed. It will draw on examples of good practice from Alliance universities, who are undertaking innovative and entrepreneurial activities across the UK in partnership with industry and the professions.
Liz Shutt joined University Alliance in 2009 and is responsible for overseeing a programme of high-quality research and analysis in order to develop evidence-based policy positions across each of the priority areas. Liz has broad experience of the higher education sector joining University Alliance from Universities UK and having previously worked at both Sheffield Hallam University and the Open University. During three years at Universities UK she covered a broad range of policy issues relating to the student experience, international policy, pre-HE and teacher education. Before that she worked at Sheffield Hallam University as part of the project team implementing the National Framework Agreement – following the recommendations of both the Dearing and Bett reviews on the Higher Education workforce. Liz started her career at the Department for Work and Pensions where she was responsible for producing regional and national level performance reports on UK employment levels. Liz studied Politics and History at the University of Kent for her first degree and went on to complete an MA by Research in European Studies, also at the University of Kent.
Simon Whittemore
Head of Change - Enterprise, Jisc
Universities and colleges – co-creators and facilitators of innovation;
bridging the management-academia divide
A recent pan-European study highlighted the fact that, despite the UK’s reputation as a leader in university-business collaboration, there is a significant divide between the academics’ and HEI managers’ perceptions of this work in this area. Perceptions of success and of relative importance (compared to standard research and teaching activities) differ greatly between these two groups. Is this simply a sign of an independent, vibrant and diverse sector, or is it a structural issue and a cultural trait undermining the UK’s performance in innovation? This talk will explore HEFE institutions’ role in leading and facilitating innovation, in the political context of the Witty Review recommendations, examine key enablers and barriers such as digital technologies and new business models, and highlight examples of good practice, including projects that Jisc has supported.
Simon Whittemore has a background in public and private sectors, in policy development, innovation and business improvement, working mainly at national and international levels. He is currently Head of Change - Enterprise at Jisc, and has spent the last decade helping higher and further education institutions to develop their capabilities and opportunities in external engagement, especially through the innovative use of digital technologies.
Simon was previously Deputy Head of Business and Community Policy at HEFCE, developing third mission work, national innovation funding policy (HEIF) and good practices. Prior to that, he was Senior Consultant with Capgemini, where he led multinational teams developing and deploying online methods and standards at Group HQ in France. He has also taught Italian in FE and has held various IT, change and account management roles.
Dr. Christopher Sier
Co-Lead on FiNexus
From KTN to future Knowledge Transfer in the Financial Services
The financial services Knowledge Transfer Network started in 2009 and ended on 31st March this year as a result of changing strategic imperatives at its principle funder, the Technology Strategy Board. During my talk I will take you on a journey around Financial Services, how Knowledge Transfer had a role to play in changing models, behaviours and the regulatory landscape for the sector, and how KT can continue to benefit sector in the future. I describe how the KTN operated, its relationship with the ESRC, a relationship that has perpetuated beyond the life of the KTN, and give examples of key issues addressed by the KTN and how it addressed them. I will move to examples of challenges that need to be addressed for the FS sector and emergent topics for future consideration. Examples will be drawn from the worlds of Pensions Funds, Catastrophe Risk modelling for the Insurance sector and Crowdfunding.
Biography
Chris is the former co-Director of the Financial Services Knowledge Transfer
network (FSKTN) and is co-lead on FiNexus, a programme to build a
series of research and innovation centres in the UK for financial
services. He is an authority on pension fund costs and complexity,
innovation in financial services and on the operational management of derivatives for the buy-side and has advised a wide range of market participants including investment managers, service providers, brokers and IT vendors on strategic and
operational issues. Chris
was previously a director of London-based Alpha Financial Markets Consulting, a buy-side strategy and benchmarking consultancy. He also spent several years as a consultant at CSTIM (Morse) and AT Kearney. Before coming to the City and after completing his PhD, Chris was a police officer in Edinburgh.
Professor Chris Birch
Director of Innovation and Enterprise, University of Greenwich & Director of IKT
From Cottage Industry to Curriculum and Classroom: Re–conceiving the concept of Knowledge Transfer
Professor Chris Birch wil lexplore the needs of current higher education and the integration of knowledge transfer into the curriculum. More details to follow.
Biography
For the past ten years, Professor Chris Birch has worked at executive level in two universities, including Pro and Deputy Vice-Chancellor roles. Currently, he is Director of Enterprise & Innovation at the University of Greenwich Business School.
Professor Birch is committed to the principle of creating mutually value-adding partnerships, particularly when shared development of secondary functions lead to more resource being made available for the delivery of core business. He is clear that universities will now have to look very hard at all aspects of their work, and how they operate, as public funding becomes more constrained and contested and as the competitive global environment, underpinned by high speed and cheap communications infrastructure, increasingly challenges traditional university dominance in the provision of higher education services. Furthermore, the impact of forthcoming demographic change will have profound effects and impact on the fitness for purpose of current provider models, which are likely to necessitate systemic structural change.
Sessions & Workshops
BENEFITS
BENEFITS (Building an Enterprise Network for an Efficient Innovation and Training System) is a project funded under the EU Interreg France (Channel) - England programme. Benefits involves partners in North France (Le laboratoire IRISE - Institut de Recherche et d’Innovation en Sciences de l’Entreprise - du Cesi) and the South of England (Universities of Greenwich and Exeter). At its core is the building of cross-Channel partnerships and expert networks to support knowledge transfer and innovation in SMEs which improve global competitiveness.
The project can be broken down into three main objectives:-
- Structuring a network of stakeholders and establishing transnational exchange programmes
- Ensuring the innovation abilities of people and companies
- Maintaining and developing the industrial and manufacturing fabric
The BENEFITS Workshop at InnovationKT consists of several sessions of contributed papers from project partners on different aspects of the project.
MEDIAMIXER Innovation Day: Innovative Multimedia Solutions Ready For Transfer To Industry
MediaMixer is a group of expert organisations in innovative multimedia technologies. Through a combination of innovations in media analysis, annotation, rights and management, companies will be enabled to better find and re-use online media, and thus build new business models and revenue streams.
The innovation day will present case studies in the new challenges and possibilities emerging from an online, annotated and shared media ecosystem and success stories of companies benefiting from knowledge transfer of cutting edge technology.
Our goal is to help media companies better understand the innovations in multimedia solutions that are emerging and relevant to their media systems and workflows as they face the challenge of media scales, complexity and disruptions in the classical media value chains. MediaMixer experts will be present at the event to guide discussions and are available for one-to-one meetings after the presentation sessions.
Please visit MediaMixer's website and scroll down a little to find out the presentation schedule for this.
KTP Case Studies
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is the UK government's flagship product based on relationships between companies (often SMEs) and UK universities, colleges and research centres. This session will feature case studies on a broad spectrum of KTP projects showing the benefits to be obtained from the synergy between companies and the UK's knowledge base.
We welcome new submissions for this session.
