Midland Innovation Introduction presentation by Sue Clayton to the Midlands Innovation_ ERC Roundtable event. 13,02.2017

1. Introduction to Midlands Innovation
Sue Clayton
Project Manager

2. Midlands Innovation
• Universities of Aston, Birmingham, Leicester, Loughborough,
Nottingham and Warwick.

3. • A world-class university research and innovation partnership,
pooling the collective excellence of universities in the Midlands to
drive growth across the region.
• Individually we are strong, with world class research, testing and
training facilities. Together we are stronger, playing a significant
role in stimulating economic growth.
Midlands Innovation

4. Midlands Innovation

5. Research Excellence

6. • Running for a number of years.
• Activities:
• Online regional equipment catalogue (records of 797 items)
• Technical Manager’s Forum and Technical Skills Network
• Conferences:
• Biomedical imaging
• Advanced Manufacturing Conference
• Planned event on Photonics
• How it is evolving:
• Changing political landscape
• Changing landscape of university collaboration
• Increased regional consortium profile
Partnership

7. Partnership
• Regional university collaboration is changing.
• Other national collaborations
• Political agenda
“The government invites universities to develop proposals for
supporting local collaboration, building on successful university
collaborative partnership models such as the N8, M6 and GW4, to
be supported through funding streams such as the next £400
million round of the Research Partnership Investment Fund, and
will set out further details at the Spending Review.”
George Osbourne, Summer 2015 Budget

8. Principles of the Midlands
Innovation partnership
1. The role of Midlands Innovation is to create collaborative research, innovation and
training partnerships that will deliver an outcome above that of a single institutional
effort.
2. The six universities are the core members of the partnership.
3. Midlands Innovation collaborates with other institutions through research and
innovation projects where partners have world class capability to contribute.
4. All six Midlands Innovation members should consent to a project being branded as a
Midlands Innovation project, but not all six need participate. (Usually we would think
of a minimum threshold of three.)
5. The lead University for each research, innovation or training programme is
determined on a project by project basis, according to the specific requirements of the
project or funding call.

9. Where we collaborate
• Equipment sharing:
• Kit-Catalogue was named winner of the 2012 S-Lab Award for Laboratory Equipment
and Services and was shortlisted for the Outstanding ICT Project of the Year at the
Times Higher Education awards
• Energy – through the Energy Research Accelerator
• ESRC Doctoral Training Partnerships
• Science & Innovation Audit
• High Performance Computing
• Technician’s Forum
• Flow Cytometry
• Midlands Engine for Growth
• Transport

10. What is next...
• Identifying new areas for collaboration
• Re-forming the equipment sharing activities
• Supporting current developing initiatives
• ERA
• HPC
• Midlands Engine for Growth
• Transport
• ESRC DTP
• Developing a pipeline of collaborative project ideas
• Supporting the Technicians’ Forum – May 2017 @ University of
Warwick
http://midlandsinnovation.org.uk/

11. Midlands Engine for Growth
• Idea from the Chancellor (akin to Northern Powerhouse)
• 10 LEP regions, ~ 75 Local Authorities.
• Prospectus launched on 4th December by Sajid Javid.
• Priorities: transport, access to finance, skills, innovation, promotion
• Innovation: transport, engineering, agri-food, healthcare & life
sciences, creative & digital
• Opportunity to highlight economic role of the universities and register
collaborative concepts.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s
ystem/uploads/attachment_data/file/4822
47/midlands-engine-for-growth.pdf

12. Science and Innovation Audits
• Midlands Engine awarded one of first round of audits.
• Focused on the innovation themes from the prospectus.
• Audits are focused on research excellence and its links to
innovation on the ground.
• Audits will be a combination of state-of-the-art data science and
one-the-ground local data and knowledge.
• Audits will give government a list of where regions are strong and
investment may follow.
• Submitted 23/9/16
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/atta
chment_data/file/475097/BIS-15-537-science-and-innovation-
audits-call-and-guidance.pdf

13. h.turner@nottingham.ac.uk – Dr Helen Turner – Director
sue.clayton@Nottingham.ac.uk – Sue Clayton – Project Manager
ellen.mcghee@Nottingham.ac.uk – Ellen McGhee – Executive Assistant
Twitter: #InnovationMids
Web: http://midlandsinnovation.org.uk/