2nd MEETING OF EDF INNOVATION SUB-GROUP ON 27 JUNE 2005
Attendees: David Dobbin, CBI
Fabian Monds, Invest NI
Bob Barbour, CforC
Bernie Hannigan, UU
Chris Conway, Nortel
Wilfie Hamilton, DETI
Graeme Hutchinson, DETI
Anne Conaty, DETI
Boyd McDowell, DEL
Stephen Moore, DETI
1. David Dobbin welcomed Chris Conway, Anne Conaty, Professor Bernie Hannigan and Boyd McDowell to the 2nd meeting of the Innovation Sub-group.
2. Apologies were noted from John Mann and David McAuley.
3. David reported members’ comments on the draft minutes of the 1st meeting had been incorporated into the draft circulated with papers. The draft minutes, as circulated with papers, were agreed without further amendment.
4. It was also noted that the action points from the 1st meeting had either been cleared already or would be progressed under the agenda of the meeting.
5. David Dobbin reminded members of the discussion at EDF’s plenary meeting in June and that members had agreed issues identified by the Sub-groups should be aligned to the appropriate Economic Vision objectives. David asked members to note the ‘Innovation Extracts from Economic Vision’ paper prepared by the Secretariat.
6. David reported that Invest NI had provided a written update on how the recommendations in the ‘Fostering Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Further Education sector report’ would be taken forward.
7. Fabian Monds noted that, in addition to the recommendations in the report, Invest NI considered there was also a skills dimension and that Invest NI had a role in highlighting, as required, the need to enhance skills and/or skills gaps in certain sectors.
8. Members held a brief discussion on the proposed action plan and agreed they would like to be kept aware of progress in developing the action plan.
ACTION: Invest NI to provide an update on progress in developing the Fostering Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Further Education sector action plan at the next meeting.
Higher and Further Education Collaboration Fund
9. Boyd McDowell provided an update on the Higher and Further Education Collaboration Fund Consultation paper, circulated to members of the Sub-group on 14 June, and noted that Ministerial approval would probably be sought in the autumn. Members agreed they would discuss this issue at the next meeting before the Ministerial review.
ACTION: Secretariat to include the Higher and Further Education Collaboration Fund on the agenda of the next meeting.
10. Graeme Hutchinson outlined the DETI paper highlighting the difficulties in measuring innovation, indicating that a move from 4 to 2 year surveys would help.
11. Members discussed the need to establish more short-term measures and agreed that what was needed was a small set of indicators (i.e. 3 – 4) that could be used to track trends in innovation and benchmark relative NI performance against other regions. It was agreed that a small group would look at this issue (Bob Barbour, Bernie Hannigan and Anne Conaty/Graeme Hutchinson) and report back to the next sub group meeting.
ACTION: BB, BH, AC, GH to discuss further and report back to the next meeting.
12. Members discussed the DETI paper and noted that Invest NI was undertaking research to establish the benefits and spillovers from its RTD Centres of Excellence. Members acknowledged the usefulness of this spillover research but cautioned that there was a need for an insightful interpretation and better analysis of the interim findings. It was noted the research would be much more informative if it established clearly the wealth created by the RTD Centres of Excellence (e.g. sales from new products etc.). One possibility suggested was that the centres might be ranked to highlight those that are making the greatest payback. It was also suggested that the centres might be asked, to assess their sustainability/viability, i.e. if they would be able to self-fund when their RTD support ceased and if they see any difficulties ahead.
ACTION: Secretariat to relay the Sub-group’s comments to Invest NI.
13. David Dobbin welcomed Dan Flinter and John Speers to the meeting and outlined the background to the Food Strategy Implementation Partnership (FSIP) and Fit for Market.
14. Dan circulated copies of a presentation on Implementing Fit for Market and spoke to his presentation.
15. Members then discussed how the food industry tracks its levels of innovation, during which the following points emerged:
§ The food industry does not have enough people with the skills needed to manage innovation;
§ There is a need for a further Foresight initiative and a need to prepare companies to receive the Foresight message;
§ There are still low awareness levels amongst companies of the support programmes available;
§ The key measure of success for the food industry is the level of export sales;
§ The need to raise the levels of spending by companies on R&D is also important; and
§ As it implements Fit for Market, FSIP should communicate to EDF any emerging issues where EDF support might be helpful.
ACTION: FSIP to provide EDF with a copy of its draft report (expected autumn 2005) for information and comment.
16. David thanked Dan and John for their presentation and contribution to the discussion following which Dan and John left the meeting.
17. Members noted that the previous discussions with John and Dan highlighted further the need for the skills Sub-group to address the issue of how to equip young people and the existing workforce with the skills required for innovation.
18. A brief discussion on what DEL is doing to encourage the development of innovation skills then followed and it was agreed that this area should be discussed in more depth at the next meeting, following which the Innovation Sub-group would communicate, to the Skills Sub-group, its views on innovation skills issues.
ACTION: DEL to prepare a 1 – 2 page paper summarising what is being done to stimulate the development of innovation skills through the Skills Strategy, Further Education means Business etc. for discussion at the next Sub-group meeting.
19. Bob Barbour noted that CforC is developing a paper on this item. It was agreed that substantive discussion on this item should be held over until the next meeting.
ACTION: Bob Barbour to circulate draft policy paper developed by CforC and the Clusters Facilitators Forum which had been presented to Invest NI and DETI for consideration as part of the policy development to support innovation clusters.
20. Members discussed the proposed Progress Template and agreed that the Secretariat should start to populate the template and that this draft should be discussed at the next meeting.
ACTION: Secretariat to start populating the Progress Template.
21. Due to restrictions on time, members agreed to hold discussion on this item over to the next meeting.
ACTION: Secretariat to include on the agenda of the next meeting.
22. Members agreed they should discuss Nanotechnology at a future meeting, possibly in the autumn, and invite representatives of QUB, UU and Seagate to this meeting.
ACTION: Secretariat to include Nanotechnology on the agenda of a future meeting and invite representatives of QUB, UU and Seagate.
Dates of Future Meetings
23. Members agreed the following dates and times:
§ 3rd meeting – 22 August 2005 at 9:30am, Dale Farm House
§ 4th meeting – 3 October 2005 (time and venue to be agreed)
§ 5th meeting – 21 November (time and venue to be agreed)