TOP LEVEL OBJECTIVES

  1.  The top level objectives for Faraday Partnerships are encapsulated within the Faraday Principles [38] that were set out in the 1993 White Paper:

—  the two way flow of industrial technology and skilled people between the knowledge base and industry;

—  partnerships between industrially-oriented research organisations and the science and engineering base;

—  core research underpinning product and process development;

—  industrially-relevant postgraduate training.

PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES—THE NETWORK OF FARADAY PARTNERSHIPS

  2.  The Objectives for the Network as a whole are to:

—  establish a network of 20 Faraday Partnerships by 2003;

—  at least 50 per cent. of these to be related to sector clusters in their region or adjacent regions or implementing key objectives in regional innovation or economic development plans;

—  by Autumn 1999 have developed arrangements which will allow the network to develop a national profile;

—  to build a 10 per cent year on year increase in awareness of Faraday Partnerships by relevant businesses.

PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES—INDIVIDUAL PARTNERSHIPS

  3.  The key strategic objectives of the programme is to establish Farady Partnerships built on the Faraday Principles, which have the following characteristics:

—  assembled around a suitable hub partner (eg a university, RTO, Government Agency or private sector laboratory) a group of research organisations, intermediaries and business users with a common sector or technological interest who wish to work together to research and exploit topics of mutual interest;

—  focused on sectors or technologies of national and regional priorities identified through Foresight, regional cluster or as important in a knowledge drive economy;

—  the partners sharing a common vision and an agreed strategic and business plan for the partnership;

—  using the existing support mechanisms (eg Research Council awards, European Framework progammes, European Regional Development Fund and European Structural Funds, LINK TCS, PTP/CASE, Smart) in an effective and co-ordinated way to bring work in the science and engineering base to market in a timely fashion especially by leveraging human and financial resources to take the work into user businesses;

—  involve other business support partners who can add value to the work and its wider dissemination—for example through clubs, networking, use of "technology translators" and by providing access to other services such as venture capital and help with business and management development;

—  use or create the "PTP ethic" so that high quality industrially-oriented research students carry out PhD level work within the Partnership and are given industrially relevant training that will improve their employability in business (and particularly in firms within the Partnership; and

—  work with business support organisations—especially Business Links, Regional technology Centres, Regional Development Agencies and organsations such as university regional offices and Industrial Liaison Officers; Institutes for Enterprise; the Teaching Company Directorate and TCS Centres for Small Firms to ensure a two-way flow of information and opportunity between the Partnership and the wider business community.

PERFORMANCE

  4.  Each prospective Partnership would be expected to produce a business plan for at least the first 5 years of operation that would include specific and testable objectives, showing how it would progress research, exploitation and new product development in its field.

  5.  The specific aspects of performance would include:

(i)  better interfacing between research and exploitation, especially in foresight-related topics and topics relevant to the knowledge driven economy (including the support of local clusters).

(ii)  about 200 postgraduate research associates per year trained in technologies important to business and to a standard that industry values and wishes to recruit;

(iii)  each Partnership to have work in hand on about 6 new product/process concepts at any one time, developed by consortia of organisations at the academic—industry interface who are willing to continue working together regardless of the public sector support that is available;

(iv)  providing a joint sectoral and regional focus for research and exploitation, adding weight to the Regional Innovation Strategies now being developed and future regional economic strategies;

(v)  feedback into HEI research and teaching programmes to inform academic staff about industrial needs;

(vi)  the establishment of low risk entry into the academic-industry interface for SMEs who have had relatively little previous exposure to research;

(vii)  better linkage between the various elements of public sector support available to participants; and

(viii)  brokerage—of ideas, people and resources—to increase the effectiveness of the research/exploitation process. Particularly important here are exchanges of personnel between industry and academia and between firms in supply chains.

January 2000