4th MEETING OF EDF INNOVATION SUB-GROUP ON 3 OCTOBER 2005

 

Attendees:        David Dobbin, CBI

Fabian Monds, Invest NI

Michael Maguire, IOD

Bernie Hannigan, UU

Chris Conway, Nortel

Wilfie Hamilton, DETI

David McAuley, DEL

Graeme Hutchinson, DETI

Anne Conaty, DETI

Tracy Meharg, Invest NI

 

Welcome / Apologies / Minutes of Last Meeting

 

1.      David Dobbin welcomed members and Michael Maguire and Tracy Meharg to the 4^th meeting of the Innovation Sub-group and apologies were noted from John Mann, QUB, Bob Barbour, CforC.

 

2.      The draft minutes, as circulated with papers, were agreed without further amendment.

 

Matters Arising

 

Supporting Growth in Innovation – Enhancing the R&D Tax Credit

 

3.      In response to a query on the consultation about enhancing the R&D tax credit Tracy Meharg outlined the various ways in which Invest NI made NI firms aware of the tax credit.  She also advised that Invest NI was building the tax credit into its enterprise portal, an online information portal, which was due to be launched next year.

 

4.      Following further discussion members agreed that it would be appropriate for the Business Alliance to make a response to the HMT consultation.  Graeme Hutchinson advised that the deadline for responses was in the near future.  He agreed to contact HMT to check the deadline and any flexibility for responses.

 

ACTION:           Graeme Hutchinson to contact HMT about deadline for responses to the consultation and find out if there is any flexibility with deadline.

 

Higher and Further Education Collaboration Fund

 

5.      David McAuley advised members that the proposed Higher and Further Education Collaboration Fund was on hold due to ongoing budgetary restraints.  Members viewed this as an issue which might merit an approach to the Minister by EDF to push it up the list of funding priorities.  Members agreed that the Sub-group should be briefed on the proposed fund.

 

ACTION:           David McAuley to brief the Sub-group on the Collaboration Fund at the next Sub-group meeting

 

Education Dimension – Development of ToRs for the Skills Sub-group

 

6.      David Dobbin reminded members of the skills issues discussed by the Sub-group at earlier meetings which had resulted in Michael Maguire, Chair of the Skills Sub-group, being invited to the meeting.

 

7.      David summarised the areas which Sub-group members had identified as issues which needed to be considered in relation to a skills set for innovation.  These were: -

 

–         The need to embed innovation skills in the new curriculum

 

–         The importance of the FE sector and the need for the FE colleges to support innovation and technology transfer in SMEs

 

–         The need to improve the knowledge transfer process from FE to SMEs using the experience already gained in HE

 

–         The need to increase on the low proportion of graduates progressing further for a higher degree in NI compared to other regions

 

–         To ensure that appropriate mechanisms were in place to encourage companies to develop their employee’s innovation skills

 

8.   During discussions which ensued it was noted that these issues were, in the main, operational and Michael Maguire agreed to report back to the Skills Sub-group.  He suggested, however, that it would be helpful if the Innovation Sub-group could give a steer as to how and where the issues fitted into the innovation agenda.  Members agreed that further discussion would take place at the next meeting when members reviewed the Sub-group’s proposed work programme and report their findings to the Skills Sub-group.

 

ACTION:           Michael Maguire to report discussions back to the Skills Sub-group.

 

ACTION:           Sub-group members to consider the 5 key issues identified in more detail and advise the Skills Sub-group of the desired outcome for each area.

 

Innovation Activity Currently Undertaken By Invest NI

 

9.      Tracy Meharg made a presentation to members which included Invest NI’s structure in relation to the provision of innovation activity, the recent problems in relation to the budget and a number of examples of successful Invest NI support, including case studies on innovation.

 

10.   Tracy outlined the challenges ahead as:

 

–         How to increase industry pull to embrace innovation;

 

–         How to move client focus from money to capability / innovation support;

 

–         To identify gaps in the Invest NI product portfolio; and

 

–         To communicate innovation message

 

11.   In response to members questions Tracy confirmed that Invest NI’s work was closely aligned to the Economic Vision for NI and that Invest worked with clients on both an individual and sectoral basis.  She also explained that progress was constrined by things like resource accounting, the NI Block budget constraints and uncertainty in predicting the timing of call down in relation to letters of offer.

 

12.   In response to a query about how Invest NI was tracking and measuring innovation activity within NI companies Tracy responded that Invest NI measured outputs at both macro and programme level.  She underscored the difficulties in measuring the economic impact of R&D and informed members that Invest NI had undertaken research using S Roper to attempt to better capture economic benefits.  As part of this process she advised the Group that the research had also looked at what was happening in other regions.  It was suggested that it might be useful for Invest NI to provide Sub-group members with a copy of the 2004/05 key operating plan targets for innovation and achievements against targets and also to include targets for 2005/06.

 

ACTION:           Tracy Meharg to provide details of performance against operating plan targets for 2004/05 for Innovation and Capability Group and details of targets for 2005/06.

 

13. In response to a query about the focus of Invest NI funding and the concentration on priority areas, Tracy advised members that the NI economy was fragmented but there were some trends which could inform future focus, for example, the ICT sector creates a large number of jobs.  When dealing with the specifics of innovation, she advised that innovation and profitability could come from any sector and that Invest NI would respond to innovative projects from any sector but would put additional resources into pump-priming emerging sectors such as the creative industries and bio-tech sectors in view of the growth potential in these areas.

 

14. David Dobbin thanked Tracy Meharg for her presentation and indicated that he would like to have a more detailed discussion around the challenges that were presented in the final slide of her presentation.  It was agreed that Tracy would attend the next meeting to discuss this further.

 

Innovation Sub-group Work Programme

 

15.   In view of the time taken to cover discussion about innovation skills members agreed that discussion of the Sub-group’s proposed work programme would be a key element for discussion at the next Sub-group meeting.

 

Foresight

 

16.   David Dobbin reminded members that at their last meeting it had been agreed that an exercise to map Foresight work to the key technology work being taken forward by DETI / DEL needed to be considered and Anne Conaty had agreed to undertake an exercise to map this work.

 

17.   Anne Conaty gave a brief background to the Foresight programme and explained that there had been a number of rounds of the programme which, in NI, had been taken forward by C for C.  Anne went on to explain how the programme had evolved and developed and highlighted the alignment of the programme to date with the niche areas identified by the DETI / DEL work.

 

18.   Members recognised that Foresight would be important to ensure that resources were allocated to the appropriate priority areas.  Members agreed that there was an opportunity for the Sub-group to make key recommendations on how Foresight should be managed in the future and asked for Anne’s recommendations on a possible process to do this.  Members asked Anne Conaty / Tracy Meharg to keep them informed of future developments for the Foresight programme in NI and the work of the niche technologies and how the latter would be fed into the Foresight process.

 

ACTION:           Anne Conaty / Tracy Meharg to keep Sub-group informed of future developments for the Foresight programme in NI and the work of the niche technologies and how the latter would be fed into the Foresight process.

 

Agri-food

 

19.   David Dobbin reminded members of discussion with representatives from the Food Strategy Implementation Group (FSIP) at the Sub-group’s 2^nd meeting.  At that FSIP undertook to forward to the Sub-group a copy of its draft report which was due to be published in the Autumn.  David advised that the FSIP was setting up a foresight team but that their report would not now be available until March 2006.

 

ACTION:           Secretariat to follow-up on FSIP report in March 2006.

 

Nanotechnology

 

20.   David Dobbin reminded members that the issue of nanotechnology had been discussed at a previous meeting and that members had agreed that representatives of QUB, UU or Seagate could be invited to a meeting of the Sub-group in the Autumn.  Members agreed that nanotechnology was a key area of development and that they needed to understand its importance.  It was agreed that a university representative might be best placed to advise the next Sub-group meeting.

 

ACTION:           Secretariat to invite appropriate representatives for discussion about nanotechnology at the next Sub-group meeting.

 

Communications Strategy

 

21.   Due to time constraints it was agreed that this item would be considered at the Sub-group’s next meeting.

 

Vision Framework

 

Innovation Indicators and Innovation Scenarios

22.   Members were advised that the MTSPs Sub-group had asked that each of the Vision Sub-groups to consider and agree the proposed framework and, in particular, the indicators allocated to their productivity driver area.  The Sub-group had also been asked to consider possible scenarios for input to the Regional Forecasts forecasting model.

23.   Members agreed that further discussion on the Sub-group’s work programme would be required before these issues could be given due consideration.

ACTION:           Secretariat to include innovation indicators and scenario planning on the agenda for next Sub-group meeting.

 

Any Other Business

 

Plenary EDF Meetings – Agenda Items

 

24.   Members agreed that they were not yet in a position to make any decision with regards to agenda items for the December plenary and that this would be re-visited at the next Sub-group meeting.

 

Date of Next Meeting

 

25.   Members noted that the next meeting had been rearranged and would take place at 9.30am on 18 November at Dale Farm House.