14th MEETING OF EDF INNOVATION SUB-GROUP ON 12th May 2008

 

Attendees:        Frank Bryan, IOD (Chair)

David Sterling, DETI

Anne Tohill, DETI

Gerry McCormac, QUB

Tim Brundle, UU

Bob Barbour, CforC

Fiona Hepper, DETI

Fergus Devitt, DEL

Anne Conaty, DETI

 

Apologies:         Danny McCaughan, McCaughan Associates

Tracy Meharg, Invest NI

Bernie Hannigan, UU

Stephen Kingon, Invest NI

Graeme Hutchinson, DETI

 

 

WELCOME / APOLOGIES

 

1.      Frank Bryan (Chair) welcomed Members and noted apologies from Danny McCaughan, Tracy Meharg, Stephen Kingon, Bernie Hannigan and Graeme Hutchinson.  He also welcomed Tim Brundle who was deputising for Bernie Hannigan.

 

2.      The Chair reported that the minutes of the Sub-Group’s 13th meeting on 1st February 2008 had been agreed with Members via email and posted on the EDF website.

 

 

MATTERS ARISING

 

Review of Postgraduate Funding and Policy

 

3.      The Chair reminded Members that DEL had established a project group to oversee the Review of Postgraduate Policy and Funding.  At the last meeting, DEL officials had advised that three tenders to undertake the review had been received.  He invited Fergus Devitt to provide an update.

 

4.      Fergus Devitt advised that McClure Watters, whose team included Stephen Roper had been appointed to undertake the review and informed members that a Project Initiation Document has now been cleared by the project steering group.

 

 

Joint Universities Paper

 

5.      Fergus Devitt advised that a meeting of the Sub Group will be taking place on Tuesday 20th May to look at all four strands of the Joint Universities paper and an update will be provided following this.

 

ACTION: Fergus Devitt to provide an update on all four strands of the Joint Universities paper following a meeting on Tuesday 20th May.

 

6.      Frank Bryan commented on the importance of Strand 3 (Establishing Industry led Technology Hubs) of the Joint Universities work being industry led.  Bob Barbour agreed that industry will be key to driving forward technology hubs and noted that  this involved substantial work and will take a considerable amount of time.  Frank Bryan commented that a clear project timetable would allow people to measure deliverables against given timescales.

 

ACTION: DETI officials to meet with InvestNI to discuss progress on support proposals for industry-led research hubs.

 

7.      Anne Conaty noted that there are a range of areas of work being taken forward by the Department/Invest NI in taking forward the Innovation agenda. Reference was made to the review of the existing Centres of Excellence and Fiona Hepper added that the findings of the evaluation provided clear evidence of the effectiveness and success of the Centres of Excellence.

 

8.      With regard to Strand 2 (Strengthening the Research Base - All Island Cooperation) Fergus Devitt advised that DEL is currently engaged in a number of discussions with counterparts/stakeholders in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland to consider how to maximise the impact of current funding. This will ensure universities use the money as productively as possible.  He noted that further meetings were arranged for Thursday 15th May 2008 with counterparts in NI and RoI and that DEL were confident of a positive outcome from the meetings.

 

 

MATRIX – Update on Horizon Panels

 

9.      Anne Conaty advised that all Horizon reports had been finalised and had been signed-off by the Minister.  She added that one-to-one meetings will be held with MATRIX panel members on Tuesday 13th and Wednesday 14th May with the intention that a holistic view may be presented at the next EDF Plenary.

 

10.   Anne Conaty informed members that the Matrix Technology Capabilities report had been updated following comments on the earlier draft.  However some further metrics, to be provided by DEL, still had to be added, and a further version would issue when these became available.  Gerry McCormac noted that he was content in relation to QUB’s contribution to the updated report.

 

11.   Frank Bryan noted that the final Technologies Capabilities report should be available by the end of June.

 

12.   Tim Brundle noted that UU had an outstanding requirement to provide Matrix with a supplementary capabilities statement on University of Ulster.  Queens University noted that they were close to completing their supplementary contribution on capabilities.

 

ACTION: Anne Conaty to meet with Tim Brundle/Bernie Hannigan to discuss the UU capabilities supplement to the MATRIX report.

 

 

Regional Innovation Strategy Action Plan

 

13.   Anne Conaty tabled the published version of the Regional Innovation Strategy Action Plan (RISAP) which members noted had been completed on schedule. Fiona Hepper recorded her thanks to all those involved in the development of the Action Plan.

 

14.   Fiona advised that the next step for the Department was to hold one-to-one meetings with all members to establish baselines, targets and the metrics to be used when presenting progress against key actions.  She concluded that DETI had agreed to provide a formal written report annually to the Executive, the first of which will be delivered in June 2009, and a 6-monthly update to the DETI Minister.

 

15.   Frank Bryan congratulated the Department on the successful completion of the RISAP, while DETI thanked the social partners involved for their help and engagement throughout the process of developing the Plan.

 

ACTION: DETI to hold one to one meetings with members to establish base-lines, targets and metrics to be used when presenting progress.

 

 

Innovation Fund

 

16.   Fiona Hepper provided a short update on the Innovation Fund.

 

17.   Frank Bryan asked for some clarification on the ownership of the Innovation Fund and asked who would be responsible in leading on related actions.  Fiona Hepper explained that each of the stakeholders who had committed to actions would be responsible for delivery and ensuring they had budgets etc in place (indeed, each stakeholder had been required to confirm they had resources in place ahead of the Executive agreeing the Plan).  DETI’s specific role is to keep continual lines of communication open with key stakeholders and monitor progress in terms of delivery.  She advised that DETI would be keen to report progress to the EDF plenary at an appropriate time.

 

 

Centres of Excellence – Stimulating Industry Demand

 

18.   Frank Bryan led the discussion by noting that the Executive had brought innovation to the heart of their Programme for Government.  A discussion on how various business organisations can shape up to the challenge of championing innovation, in particular through the Centres of Excellence followed during which the following issues were raised:

 

–         the need to impact on average gross value added;

–         how best to incorporate longer term university-led work; and

–         the short term opportunity of using Venture Capital (VC).

 

19.   Tim Brundle asked how a VC type approach might best be used and advised that NISP, through their Connect Programme, were currently looking at how they could take a VC model and apply it.

 

20.   David Sterling asked what the timeframe was for the NISP Connect VC approach to develop and Bob Barbour responded that NISP hoped to have this running within the next few months.

 

 

REVIEW OF EDF

 

21.   The Chair reminded Members that EDF is currently subject to ongoing review, including a review of the Sub-Group structures, and drew attention to Paper 3 which outlines the proposals emerging from the review, led by DETI.

 

22.   David Sterling led the discussion by commenting that the Programme for Government has provided the EDF with a different context in which to operate.  He discussed the desirability of a smaller forum and a different approach to constructing future agendas.  In terms of Sub-Group structures, it was explained that EDF would focus on particular issues, addressing these through ad hoc issue-specific groups rather than through the current Sub-Group structure.

 

23.   Gerry McCormac, in commenting on the draft Terms of Reference, noted that the universities should nominate their representatives to the Forum rather than nominations being made through DEL. It was noted that this was a matter of wording and agreed that the Terms of Reference would be amended as requested.  Frank Bryan also queried the reference to the ‘Programme for Government 2008-2011’ and suggested referring to the ‘current Programme for Government’ instead.

 

24.   The Chair welcomed this opportunity to draw on experience to date of the working and effectiveness of the Forum and a discussion ensued around the Sub-Group structure.  Gerry McCormac commented that he believed there was value in reconfiguration of the current Sub-Group structure but noted that a single plenary structure could not be relied upon to drive forward and champion certain pieces of work.  He suggested that a group should be established, consisting of key stakeholders, in order to undertake work/address specific issues raised.  Frank Bryan noted he was of a similar view and noted that he considered that there were two major themes where there would be an on-going requirement for consideration by the EDF namely, skills and innovation.  He advised that two committees based on these themes may be required to inform the work of the plenary and act as a support structure on key issues.

 

25.   Tied in with the above it was thought timely to review the role of an innovation delivery leadership group alongside the work of Matrix, and delivery of the RISAP.  The role of such an industry led group would be to inform plenary debates on key challenges and opportunities in innovation, by having oversight on delivery, while avoiding duplication of effort.

 

26.   David Sterling agreed that ad hoc groups would be required in the areas of skills and innovation but noted that he was keen to avoid such groups becoming long standing committees.  He expressed a preference for a series of ad hoc groups with a clear remit to find solutions to given issues.

 

27.   Bob Barbour noted that industry would need to take the lead in monitoring and pushing the agenda for the structure to be successful.

 

28.   David Sterling concluded that although the role of EDF was to provide advice to Ministers, in its revised form EDF will provide advice to Ministers on actions needed to remedy specific weaknesses in the economy.

 

ACTION: Review Terms of Reference for the EDF proposal in light of queries expressed.

 

 

FUTURE INNOVATION AGENDA FOR EDF

 

29.   The Chair opened the discussion by asking for members’ thoughts on appropriate themes to be progressed via the EDF plenary.  Members suggested the following issues (outlined in Paper 4):

 

·         Progress against the Regional Innovation Strategy (proposed by DETI) - it was noted that updates to the EDF on progress with delivery of the RIS may be an effective mechanism through which the Forum could monitor innovation activity; and

 

·         Eliminating the barriers to increased capitalisation of knowledge (Tim Brundle.) Tim expressed concern at NI’s inability to fully exploit the commercial opportunities presented through research activity and cited this as a barrier to productivity growth and wealth creation in the NI economy.  Members discussed what action might be taken to address this issue.

 

30.   The Chair asked members to provide the Secretariat with any other innovation issues for the EDF agenda by 27 May.

 

ACTION: Members to suggest future innovation topics for EDF agenda by 27 May 08.

 

 

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

 

31.   The Chair advised Members that, in light of the ongoing Review of EDF, this may be the last meeting of the Sub-Group in its current form. He recorded thanks to all those who have given up their time and contributed to the Innovation Sub-Group.  He noted that the Sub-Group had made a very important contribution to identifying and advising on key issues impacting on innovative activity in Northern Ireland and in turn had made a significant contribution to the development of an appropriate policy response. Not least among recent examples included championing the need for additional PhD students, as delivered through Minister Robinson’s Innovation Fund, helping shape and sell the RISAP, supporting the “Connected” programme for HE/FE collaboration, and encouraging the North / South dialogue for further R&D collaboration.

ISSUE

ACTIONS ARISING

LEAD

TIMESCALE

Joint Universities Paper

Fergus Devitt to provide an update on all four strands of the paper following a meeting on Tuesday 20th May.

DEL

July 2008

Joint Universities Paper – Establishing Industry Led Technology Hubs

DETI officials to meet with InvestNI to discuss progress on support proposals for industry-led research hubs.

DETI

June 2008

MATRIX Report

Anne Conaty to meet with Tim Brundle/Bernie Hannigan to discuss the UU capabilities supplement to the MATRIX report

DETI/UU

July 2008

Regional Innovation Strategy Action Plan

DETI to hold one to one meetings with members to establish base-lines, targets and metrics to be used when presenting progress.

DETI

July 2008

Review of EDF – Emerging Proposals

Review the Terms of Reference for the EDF proposal in light of queries raised.

DETI

27 May 2008

Review of EDF – Emerging Proposals

Establish whether a future meeting of the Sub-Group is to be held

EDF Secretariat

Following 12 June EDF meeting

Future Innovation Agenda for EDF

Members to suggest future innovation topics for EDF agenda by 27 May 08.

Members

27 May 2008