Irish Sea Rim (Overview Autumn Paper 2014)

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Irish Sea Rim – Overview Paper Autumn 2014 – Philip Leigh, University of Chester
Driving economic growth through business and university collaboration
around the Irish Sea Rim
Irish Sea Rim (ISR) concept copyright: Professor Philip Leigh, University of Chester
Autumn 2014
Email: p.leigh@chester.ac.uk
University of Chester | Thornton Science Park | Ince | Chester | CH2 4NU | United Kingdom
Abstract
The lands surrounding and contained by the Irish Sea comprise a unique combination of interlinked
communities and cultures. Some of Europe’s most beautiful environments are located in these Countries
and Regions. The Republic of Ireland, The Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Wales, North West England and
South West Scotland.
Irish Sea Rim has been initiated to explore the potential for growth, innovation & collaboration around
the Irish Sea, encompassing 2 nation states, 6 countries, and a wealth of public and private sector
linkages. The Irish Sea Rim can drive socio-economic growth across national boundaries and develop
regional excellence through increased collaboration and an integrated network that cross-cuts sectors.
The Irish Sea Rim will operate as an umbrella organisation and portal for regional programmes,
investment and projects to over 15m people. The Irish Sea Rim has the ability to develop as a regional
economic counterbalance to London (centric) & the South East that is often quoted as dominating UK
politics and its economy. This rational also spills over in the Republic of Ireland and this makes Ireland
(south and north) as ideal partners within this network and framework.

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Mission: To develop economic growth around the Irish Sea Rim through innovative collaborative
engagements between government, business, communities and the higher education sector.
1. Strategic vision
 Develop and deliver innovative and competitive collaborations and partnerships between
industry, business, business support agencies, government, communities and universities that
drive economic growth and job creation.
 Develop research excellence via business – university programmes and engagement.
 Deliver business leadership and university doctoral training centres across key sectors such as
energy, science and technology and advanced manufacturing.
2. Executive summary
 The Irish Sea Rim (ISR) Economic, Research and Innovation Zone project will link business,
academia, government and community in a quadruple helix, via a holistic approach. A multi-
national (6 home countries) Doctoral Training Centre will be set-up in which business facing PhDs
can be linked and supported via common research, business and innovation threads.
 ISR will engage with stakeholders to work across a number of socio-economic-science-industry
sectors, including: energy, leadership, transport, sustainability and advanced manufacturing.
 The project will begin with integrating energy research work across business and academia,
within and around the Irish Sea Rim zone. This will include all energy technologies, related
industries and supply chains. The Irish Sea Rim Marine Energy Group has been established along
with initiatives around energy storage and other energy technologies.
 The Irish Sea Rim Economic Research and Innovation Zone will be developed from Thornton
Science Park (just outside Chester) which is an integral part of the University of Chester.
 A key focus in the initial stages of the ISR project will be to develop a sustainable funding stream
model to ensure continuity and promote the concept (energy initially) to partners.
 The Irish Sea Rim project will be outward facing and will link and/or partner with enterprises such
as: Britain’s Energy Coast and many other potential strategic entities. Additionally, through the
collective knowledge from universities, institutions, regions, counties, key agencies and
businesses around the Irish Sea Rim, many international projects and collaborations can be
developed.
 The Irish Sea Rim will engage with the Catapult Centres and evaluate how well they support
business university collaboration.
 It is envisaged the Irish Sea Rim will be a powerful socio-economic and strategic driver to change,
growth and regeneration. This is a project working on the edge of a number of different regions,
which has the potential to showcase the strengths of partnership working across a common
region encompassing five culturally and historically tied countries.

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 The Irish Sea Rim will evaluate sustainable funding models to ensure business university
collaboration continues to grow. This research will link with the BIS analysis of “a sustained, long-
term pattern of under-investment in public and private research and development and publicly
funded innovation”.
 An open-innovation approach will encourage partnership working and networking. It is envisaged
this methodology will create new business opportunities, promote knowledge exchange and
business growth, increased turnover and employment levels & open new markets via regional
and transnational collaborations.
 The Irish Sea Rim is investigating methods to increase R&D investment through linking with LEPs,
Government and universities.
 The Irish Sea Rim project aims to create an environment for entrepreneurial stimulus and
development in both education and business. Additionally, the project will develop an annual
competition and showcase for innovation and original thought.
 The Irish Sea Rim is evaluating how well the changes in HEIF affect university engagement with
SMEs as proposed in the Witty review.
 This is a model that will be developed around the 6 countries that are connected by the marine
link of the Irish Sea and it is envisaged that it will have the potential to influence and instruct
other maritime regions around the globe. The Irish Sea Rim will also learn from other maritime
regions such as the Baltic Sea and Mediterranean Sea regions.
3. Irish Sea Rim rationale and history
The ISR project originated from experiences across many socio-economic-science-industry sectors as
described in the executive summary. In order to capture the complexity that exists in the multiple levels
this project is proposing to operate across, the project is looking to establish order and simplicity from
complex situations and provide solutions across a wide number of sectors; whilst engendering
collaborations and growing partnerships between business and universities.
However, the Irish Sea Rim project aims to support multiple ideas across a number of platforms to deliver
pre-agreed outcomes such as the creation of new jobs and markets. Increasing turnover and engendering
growth in businesses through increased engagement with universities around the Irish Sea Rim.
There is nothing new in bringing together the people, communities and traders from around the Irish
Sea. We know that Bronze Age explorers made perilous trading voyages here thousands of years ago;
and that Viking merchants and traders used the waters of the Irish Sea as their highway between their
strongholds of York and Dublin; for centuries the port of Liverpool’s main trading partner was Ireland;
and during the Industrial Revolution strong economic links were forged between Liverpool shipping lines,
Glasgow entrepreneurs and engineers, and Belfast shipbuilders.
There have been cultural, economic and demographic ties too: the short sea passage from southern
Scotland to northern Ireland allowed frequent contact and trade, and since the time of Robert the Bruce
there was significant settlement too; Irish cattle and agricultural produce were exported to the UK for
centuries (even during the Great Famine). And in the nineteenth century hundreds of thousands of Irish
emigrated to Scotland, England and Wales: in 1851 Irish-born people made up almost 20% of the
population in some British cities.

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Transport links, too, have always been important: coastal shipping created strong and enduring links
between ports and towns on all sides of the Irish Sea; the first state-funded modern road – Telford’s A5
– was built following the Act of Union in part to allow Irish MPs to travel to Westminster more easily; and
for 120 years there has even been talk of building a tunnel to link Ireland and the UK.
The Irish Sea can, and perhaps should, be viewed in the same way we regard the Mediterranean and
Baltic Seas: as a maritime link that provides communication, economic wealth, cultural exchange and a
strong sense of community and shared experience to all the people who live on or near its shores.
4. Irish Sea Rim (Region)
The Irish Sea Rim as a region/zone encompasses the two European Union (EU) member states of UK and
Ireland; and the regions of North West England, Wales (including Cardiff), South Western Scotland
(including Glasgow), East and Southern Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man (figure 1). This
region has a population of over 15 million with a combined GDP for the region of €464 billion (2007).
Figure 1: Irish Sea Rim in context with UK/Ireland & London
The Irish Sea Rim has wide-ranging connectivity, including major transport logistics and infrastructure,
Including: 10 airports; 10 seaports; Regional and national road & rail networks and numerous hubs &
facilities. A key challenge is to improve transport infrastructure and travel costs across the Irish Sea.
M62 CorridorM62 corridor
Cardiff
Belfast
Dublin
Liverpool
Glasgow
Manchester
Leeds
Irish
Sea
London
Initiated to explore the potential for
growth, innovation & collaboration around
the Irish Sea, encompassing two nation
states, six countries, and a wealth of public
and private sector linkages.
The Irish Sea Rim can drive socio-economic
growth across national boundaries and
develop regional excellence (2 + 2 = 5).
The Irish Sea Rim can develop as a regional
economic counterbalance to London
(centric) & the South East.
The Irish Sea Rim will operate as an
umbrella organisation and portal for
regional programmes, investment and
projects to over 15m people.
The following maps in this paper focus on
the connectivity of the six countries that
make up the Irish Sea Rim; however the
true geographical extent includes the
wider hinterland as outlined in figures 1
(left) & 2 (below).

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Figure 2: Map of offices around the Irish Sea Rim demonstrating hinterland & regional spread
• Head Office
• North West England
• Thornton Science Park / University of Chester
• Country offices
• Glasgow
• Belfast
• Dublin/Cork
• Bangor/Cardiff
• Douglas
• Regional offices
• These will develop across the regions as the Irish Sea Rim develops
Glasgow
Bangor
Dublin
Belfast
Douglas
NW England
Manchester
Cardiff
Cork

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5. Irish Sea Rim Project outline and overview
This project proposes to engender links between business, universities, government and communities in
order to create a new business paradigm via a quadruple helix model. This novel approach aims to re-
launch the innovation and business economy transnationally and across a wide number of regions within
identified countries.
The project will be delivered by the Irish Sea Rim Group and associates which will act as an umbrella
organisation over the planned activity over planned timelines. There will be a number of projects
designed with cross-cutting themes to link them to the overall vision and strategic direction of the entity
as a whole. Strategic themes include: energy; business; science and technology; sport; academia;
education; creative industries; events and a special projects group.
The Irish Sea Rim will write and contribute to policy papers on a wide range of subjects. The Irish Sea Rim
will organise and run numerous conferences, activities and events on an annual basis in and around the
Irish Sea Rim. The project will link with external facing business support agencies, business and
universities.
As the project develops partnerships will form around the numerous sectors the Irish Sea Rim will operate
and deliver and spin-out opportunities will form. Other institutions, agencies and businesses will lead and
partner on projects depending on their relative expertise and resource. A number of flyers have been
created describing key sectors to enable a simpler understanding of different parts of the Irish Sea Rim
concept.
6. Business and commerce
Business and commerce are key to the success of Irish Sea Rim. This introduction to businesses around
the Irish Sea Rim (via figure 3 below), gives a region by region breakdown of micro, small, medium and
large enterprises around the Irish Sea Rim. The Northern Ireland figures are for the whole country
(detailed provincial breakdown to follow). Also included are figures for the Isle of Man. Business sector
maps to follow.
As can be seen by the breakdown of companies by number and size around the Irish Sea Rim, the largest
concentration of large companies are associated with the 5 largest cities in the region (Manchester,
Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin and Belfast). The main anomaly here is Lancashire, which also has a good
number (230) of large companies. It is no real surprise that the regions with the largest cities and
population also have the highest number of micro and small companies. See section 7, (table 2) for
further details of business around the region.
University Enterprise Zones are viewed as potential ‘hot spots’ for business university collaboration. The
Irish Sea Rim’s vision is to engage with these to assess their success. Work on this is on-going and
sectionalisation of businesses will be published in due course.
The Irish Sea Rim is being developed and led by the University of Chester on the Thornton Science Park.
This is a perfect example of industry/business working in partnership with academia. Here we will develop
students across science and engineering that will seamlessly fit with numerous industry employers.

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Figure 3: Irish Sea Rim – Business and Commerce.
7. University Opportunities with ISR
Over the past decade, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have increasingly developed their links with
the private and public sectors in order to enhance and complement the provision of research and
teaching. One of the principal ways in which this has been achieved is through the engagement of
undergraduate and postgraduate students on business-related projects and placements. An exploration
of university degree programme advertising reveals that most HEIs now offer students the opportunity
to undertake a short-term or dissertation project in partnership with an external organisation. The
rationale for this is clear; students gain valuable employment experience through their studies, whilst the
business concerned gains new insights into an area with which it needs help or expertise but lacks the in-
house resources. Furthermore, many placements are undertaken at low or zero cost to the business
involved, making them attractive, especially for the SME community. With academic supervisors also

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involved (usually in longer term placements) such projects have the potential to develop into longer term
contract or collaborative research between the university and outside organisation involved.
The Irish Sea Rim project has the potential to link up to 30 academic institutions (more may be added as
the project develops), which together host over 350,000 undergraduates, 100,000 postgraduates and
30,000 academics (table 1 and figure 4).
Figure 4: Universities based around the Irish Sea Rim that could contribute to a Doctoral Training
Centre and research collaboration to support economic growth across the region.
Furthermore, the districts around the Irish Sea host a combined total of 493,000 separate businesses
(table 2, below). There is therefore considerable potential for a myriad of student placements and project
opportunities to be developed and garnered, and for knowledge transfer and student employability to
be greatly enhanced throughout the area as a whole. Whereas many placements set up by HEIs may be
sourced within the nearest town, county, or region, the Irish Sea Rim has the potential to enable HEIs to
source placements from other regions and countries, whilst the businesses and organisations around the
Irish Sea can access a much broader wealth of expertise than their local HEIs can offer alone.

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Table 1: Students and academics based in HEIs around the Irish Sea
Higher Education provider Undergraduate Postgraduate Academic Staff
University of Cumbria* 8935 1775 425
Lancaster University* 9235 3845 1430
University of Central Lancashire* 27010 4520 1205
University of Bolton* 7035 1445 300
Edge Hill University* 14605 7745 925
University of Salford* 17200 4555 1470
Manchester Metropolitan University* 28005 6425 2150
Manchester University* 28155 12530 4415
Liverpool John Moores University* 20430 4025 2635
University of Liverpool* 17445 4430 2200
Liverpool Hope University* 5760 1985 245
University of Chester* 11900 3315 505
Glyndwr University* 8120 1415 340
University of Bangor* 8435 2820 930
University College Dublin** 16300 7199 Unknown
Trinity College Dublin** 11599 5950 785
Dublin City University** 7690 2621 450
NUI Maynooth** 7683 2074 Unknown
Queens University, Belfast* 17865 5120 1515
University of Ulster* 20740 5820 1465
Isle of Man College (Chester affiliated)*** 346 Unknown
University of Strathclyde* 14070 5685 1320
University of Glasgow* 19910 6385 2655
University of West of Scotland* 13300 1550 540
Aberystwyth* 9910 1795 900
Open University Unknown in ISR
UG Total 351617 105095 30405
Sources: *Higher Education Statistics Agency (UK) (2013), 2011-12 academic year
**Higher Education Authority (Ireland) (2013), 2011-12 academic year; ***Isle of Man College (2013), 2012-13 academic year
Table 2: Registered businesses based around the Irish Sea
Country Sub-region or district Micro Medium Small Large Total
Scotland North, South & East Ayrshire* 9620 1865 350 40 11875
South Lanarkshire* 8005 1585 310 50 9950
Dumfries and Galloway* 6130 1060 165 15 7370
England Cumbria* 21610 3540 585 65 25800
Lancashire* 43555 8150 1645 230 53580
Merseyside* 29685 6455 1460 255 37855
Greater Manchester* 75140 14630 3265 555 93590
Cheshire* 21045 4085 860 55 26045
Wales Clwyd* 15185 2880 560 80 18705
Gwynedd* 7665 1190 180 15 9050
Ceredigion* 3945 425 55 5 4430
Ireland Wicklow** 5585 361 23 7 5976
Kildare** 7305 511 82 14 7912
Dublin** 50926 5043 1069 274 57312
Meath** 6486 453 60 8 7007
Louth** 4167 399 46 5 4617
Monaghan** 2277 72 37 0 2386
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland* 68840 11275 1995 260 82370
Isle of Man Isle of Man*** 23000 4500 600 37 28137
Total 410171 68479 13347 1970 493967
Sources: *Office for National Statistics (UK) (2013); **Central Statistics Office (Ireland) (2011);
***Department of Economic Development (Isle of Man) (2013).
N.B. total number correct for IOM, breakdown inferred due to lack of data.

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Furthermore, as many students within the host organisations are from other parts of the UK, Ireland,
Europe or indeed the rest of the world, and given the national and export aspirations of many businesses
based around the Irish Sea, there is the potential also for a considerable impact to be made far beyond
the geographic boundaries of the Irish Sea Rim.
Taking UCLan as an example, there is scope for placement students to be sourced from any of its 16
schools, and for students from these schools to undertake projects in collaboration with any appropriate
business or organisation based around the Irish Sea. Travel and accommodation arrangements and costs
would need to be carefully managed, but in many cases projects could be completed at UCLan, with
periodic trips for progress meetings undertaken throughout the course of the project. Furthermore, with
the advent of web-based meeting tools such as Skype, complemented by more traditional forms of
telecommunication, updates are possible without any travel, where appropriate. This model echoes the
way in which paid consultants often undertake research projects for clients, and where working at the
client site is unnecessary. This model can be replicated across other universities and indeed may include
collaboration with other academic institutions around the Irish Sea Rim.
In an era of economic hardship, a highly competitive labour market, and increased tuition fees in some
countries, there is a strong case for student projects to benefit 3 distinct parties. For the businesses and
organisations which wish to engage, there is an opportunity to investigate a new area of business without
considerable expenditure, and an opportunity to potentially recruit a high-calibre future employee. For
the student there is an opportunity to enhance their CV whilst still at university, gain a non-academic,
work-based reference for future job opportunities, and to potentially gain employment directly with their
host. For the HEIs, there is the prospect of a more appropriate range of placement opportunities for its
students, identified from a much larger pool than it may normally have access to, with associated benefits
to student satisfaction scores and recruitment. ISR has the potential to bring such benefits to a wide and
diverse array of stakeholders based permanently or temporarily around the Irish Sea.
8. Executive Education, CPD and Training
The Irish Sea Rim will develop with its partner’s, executive education, CPD and training courses across a
number of sectors including: energy, manufacturing, management and leadership. The Irish Sea Rim is
beginning to develop links that will design, market and deliver high quality, relevant training to businesses
in identified key sectors. This work will link with and across all faculties with the University of Chester
including the Chester Business School.
The executive education courses and training will link with numerous sectors: including the oil and gas
industry where we are developing and expanding their knowledge and expertise. Universities have
developed a number of key industrial partners who will assist in the development and delivery of these
courses; and link with leadership courses currently offered at the Business Schools based within
universities.
The University of Chester are working to partner with businesses in developing and enhancing training
programme in the energy sector. Additional linkages with Chester Business School and other prominent
business schools at academic institutions around the Irish Sea Rim will add value to the Executive
Education courses for business.

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9. Irish Sea Energy Rim
Located around and within the Irish Sea region are a plethora of energy generation technologies. This
ranges, from nuclear and gas (off shore) to wind (on shore and off shore), hydro, biomass, solar and many
other renewable technologies. In addition there is advanced research into wave and tidal systems (the
UK has one of the largest tidal ranges in the world). New and unconventional energy such as shale gas is
an emerging technology adding to the rich energy mosaic. Supporting this rich energy region are over 20
universities located around the Irish Sea in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland. In
addition there are established initiatives such as Britain’s Energy Coast (BEC), Solway Energy Gateway,
Northwest Energy Gateway, Mersey Gateway Bridge and the Energy Island (EI) of Anglesey along with
others around the Irish Sea Rim (see figure 5 below).
When looked at in isolation there is already much expertise in energy across the region. However, there
is the possibility to pull these technologies via an Irish Sea energy rim portal; forging entities closer
together through concentrated collaboration and more focused research.
Figure 5: Irish Sea Energy Rim with selected technologies and partners

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Thus, between academic institutions and entities with an interest in energy, technology and engineering;
it is proposed the region has an opportunity to become a real power house of expertise in energy
generation, energy engineering and manufacturing, skills development, facility and research excellence.
ISR will link with tier 1, 2 and 3 companies, further developing the supply and value chains across the
industry.
It is proposed in conjunction with the energy rim a doctoral centre based on energy is launched with the
University of Chester as the umbrella academic institution leading the centre. With over 30 universities
to collaborate it is envisaged the doctoral centre would link with different universities depending on the
technology in question. However a common theme of energy technology, R & D and generation will
connect and drive this. It is envisaged the doctoral centres will also operate as a group of interested
universities around the Irish Sea Rim in a similar way to the N8 group. The energy rim and doctoral centre
will have the potential to contribute to and write policy papers; adding further impact to the energy
agenda for the UK, Ireland and to a wider global reach.
In this period of energy uncertainty the opportunity to build a collective of energy expertise and
generation capacity across a strategic region has never been more important. Energy security, energy
storage and local generation are key drivers in developing energy for the future. Price stabilisation and
control are key factors in how our (UK and Ireland) energy mix over the next 20-50 years is going to look.
ISER is ideally placed to bring key players in the energy industry together for a more secure energy future.
10. Communities
The focus of the Irish Sea Rim project is to bring the opportunity of maintaining sustainability to all the
communities, in all their manifestations, in the designated area. In defining sustainability the focus must
start from a financial perspective then be applied to all other relevant aspects.
The criteria used to measure the success of our society / communities is most often that which is
financially focused and does not look at the whole picture (GVA). Within the context of its work ISER
could help to launch a more meaningful measurement that of ‘sustainable communities’.
The sense of community has been increasingly eroded over time and yet it remains the one aspect of our
society that is key to all of us. Within our society there are a lamentable lack of good examples of truly
effective community structure and focus. Often this sense of community tends only to manifest itself in
the face of adversity.
A significant percentage of the communities that surround the Irish Sea Rim are often marginalised in a
regional and national sense due to their geographic location and size of population. Yet increasingly these
communities have an ever increasing role to play in supporting their more affluent and influential
neighbours. This is often due to their ability to provide the essential elements that hold the larger
community together; energy, food, water etc.
Communities very often then find they only have a very small voice when it comes to influencing and
creating new opportunities. More often than not they find themselves exploited by others who give little
back by way return. The Irish Sea Energy Rim will help to bind communities together to give them a far
greater sense of presence, opportunity and authority.

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ISER will give the opportunity to take a fresh look at how communities can be involved, showcased and
recognised for the contribution that they make to the whole. It will shift their focus from being at the
edge of things, psychologically and geographically, to being an integral part of the big picture. Through
the development of the model of community involvement, recognition and the ensuing opportunities
ISER will expect to have a significant influence on a larger global platform.
Community Research – Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
The AHRC is leading on Connected Communities, a cross-Council programme designed to help us
understand the changing nature of communities in their historical and cultural contexts and the role of
communities in sustaining and enhancing our quality of life. The programme, which is of interest to the
Irish Sea Rim, seeks not only to connect research on communities, but to connect communities with
research, bringing together community-engaged research across a number of core themes, including
community health and wellbeing, community creativity, prosperity and regeneration, community values
and participation, sustainable community environments, places and spaces, and community cultures,
diversity, cohesion, exclusion, and conflict.
Connected Communities
The AHRC is leading on Connected Communities, a cross-Council programme designed to help us
understand the changing nature of communities in their historical and cultural contexts and the role of
communities in sustaining and enhancing our quality of life. ISR will look to connect into this and other
similar opportunities.
11. Quadruple Helix Model, Sectors and Funding Streams
The diagram below (figure 6) outlines the key linkages of the Irish Sea Rim project. A Quadruple Helix
(QH) model is proposed, this links business, sport, academia and community.
Figure 6: Quadruple helix model approach to connect 4 key sectors within the Irish Sea Rim
Government
CommunityAcademia
Business
Interconnected
A vehicle to promote excellence and knowledge exchange across 4 key sectors
 Holistic Model
 Lifestyle Approach
Quadruple
helix model

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The Irish Sea Energy Rim connects three of the innovation actors from the QH below. A proposed cycle
road show event around the Irish Sea Rim for example connects all four sectors. Below Anita Füzi
describes some background to the Quadruple Helix, its innovation actors and potential applications.
“Firstly, it is important to explore what Quadruple Helix consists of and how it can be defined. Quadruple
Helix is an innovation cooperation model or innovation environment in which users, firms, universities and
public authorities cooperate in order to produce innovations (products and/or services). Much of the
previous research pointed out that there is not only one Quadruple Helix, but several different ones exist
(for instance Living Lab models). What is common to all the Quadruple Helix type of innovation
conceptions is they all have included some fourth group of innovation actors into the Triple Helix model.
Based on the research literature on innovation, the author argues that the fourth helix of Quadruple Helix
should be a broadly understood user. Depending on the context, users can be businesses, organizations,
civil society associations, lead users, professional users, ordinary or amateur users, consumers,
employees, residents and citizens as well.” (Füzi, 2013).
Figure 7 below illustrates a number of key sectors that the ISR has the potential to work across beginning
with energy. The Irish Sea Rim can be described as a multi-layered 3-D matrix network, operating across
multiple sectors. It is being designed to work in a holistic way that brings additionallity and economic
prosperity to the region as a whole.
Figure 7: Some of the sectors the Irish Sea Rim will work across around the Irish Sea Rim

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In order for the Irish Sea Rim to be successful it is essential a sustainable funding model is developed and
implemented. This requires a number of funding streams to ensure for example that after a 2-3 year
project funded by for example Horizon 2020, ERDF, Interreg, UKERC or other that funding continues and
the centre becomes sustainable. What this project is aiming for is a blend of the above mentioned funding
avenues, plus others including creating incomes that are plugged into ISR in a strategic and systematic
way to ensure continued funding for ISR activities and allowing the project to grow. The figure (8) below
is an illustration of how a multiple funding stream model may operate to support an energy rim in the
first instance. This could be developed to fund other sectors.
Figure 8: An example of inputs for a multi layered funding model for the Irish Sea Energy Rim.
The figure (8) above is focused more on science and energy, while the Irish Sea Rim project as a whole
has the potential to have a much bigger impact overall when additional sectors are considered.
12. References
Anita Füzi (2013); TheTriple Helix International Conference. Session ‘Building the innovative markets,
places and networks’ Quadruple-Helix and its types as user-driven innovation models. Cardiff School of
Management, Cardiff Metropolitan University/ Széchenyi István University.
Sir Andrew Witty (2013); The Witty Review – Review of Universities and Growth. This publication is
available from www.gov.uk/bis

Irish Sea Rim (Overview Autumn Paper 2014)

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