AUA UK/Canada proposal: McGill University Name:
Vivienne Gray
Organisation:
Higher Education South East Berkeley House, Cross Lanes, London Square, Guildford Surrey, GU1 1UN
Telephone:
01483 500747Email:
vivienenegray@hese.ac.uk
Title:
An investigation into how to support an emerging regional innovation system at the local level which focuses on the restructuring of a university, Mc Gill in Montreal, via third stream activities which aim to lead to sustained cultural change processes over time. (To include comparisons with current practice in South East England). Background: England: The Regional Development Bill of 1998 explicitly states that one of the functions of the new Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in England is to “promote technology transfer, including maximising the benefits of work of the higher education institutions”. (Regional Development Agencies Bill 1997/98). Since 1998 the DTI and HEFCE have jointly funded business and university schemes to support technology transfer - namely HEROBAC; HEIF and HEIF2. It is very likely that by 2008 this funding stream known as “Third Stream” will become a permanent stream of funding and allocated to HEIs using a formulaic method. In addition to this dedicated national funding stream the English regions are establishing mechanisms and channels for the development of a regional innovation system to support and maximise the technology transfer from the HEIs based in each region. All English Regions have firstly, a Higher Education Regional Association providing a regional focus to business and other regional stakeholders and secondly, a regional Science and Industry Council whose role is to inform the RDA on regional innovation policy. In the case of the South East, some of the key goals of the RDA innovation policy are: 1. To promote stronger HEI-HEI collaboration through dedicated HE networks 2. To support knowledge transfer and knowledge management skills for industry 3. To identify needs of business for research and development and broker relationships with HEIs. 4. To promote innovative management skills In addition the RDAs have recently taken over the contract management of the Business Link network. Business Links are the major providers of business advice to small and medium sized companies. This interaction of university; industry and government is known as the “Triple Helix model”. It is a recent neo-evolutionary model of innovation that stresses the active interactions among university, industry and government for the production, the use and the exchange of knowledge. (SPRU, 2004) In the case of Canada the Triple Helix model framework will be used to gain insight into the knowledge transfer processes at McGill University, Quebec province.
AUA Application: V Gray Page 1 of 7 01/06/2010