Competence Centres

The emergence of large research hubs has been characteristic of the direction of research and development in recent years. They are funded between three partners: industry, university and government and are established within specific zones which may include a relatively small or expanded/dispersed geographic area. The amount of subsidy required for their maintenance is generally at least 40% and commonly as high as 60% or more, so management of the centres must be very effective to ensure their success and longevity.

Recognition that the most advantageous long-term projects combine pure basic research with recognisable outputs is driving the move towards the formation of such centres. The centres address a market failure in funding fundamental research, while evolving over time to ‘harvest’ their fundamental research through shorter-term innovations. This goal is provided by establishment of a broader team, capable of providing all the necessary research elements and capable of taking advantage of the developed products and outcomes. The broader team often includes drawing in representatives from industry such that their influence is increased compared with traditional University structures. Essential ingredients of the centres include their interdisciplinary nature and problem-focused in their research. Measures of their success primarily include:

• Direct influence on innovation, generating wealth and jobs
• Research-trained people, particularly adapted to working in industry
• Close-to-market practical and empirical knowledge, directly useful in design and development
• Fundamental understanding useful to the industrial infrastructure over the longer term
• Extended networks of people and organisations
• Increased attractiveness of the local innovation infrastructure, influencing the location of R&D and production for firms with interests in the specified sector

In the USA, the NSF’s Engineering Research Centres have provided a model for subsequent similar schemes across many world regions. In the UK in 2008, the the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are also moving in this direction with the establishment of Integrated Knowledge Centres pending.

Similar examples have been initiated in Australia, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Canada. In Taiwan, research centres are linked together through a quasi-governmental Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and form a particularly successful entity. The remarkable growth of specialised yet flexible computer and semiconductor firms in Taiwan has been supported by a very different type of industrial policy. Taiwan's ITRI model combines development initiative and engineering support with commercialisation by a mass of small to medium-sized firms in the adjacent Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park. The government provides technological support for both long-term development and specific innovative products, while restricting allocation of capital and encouraging the development of a thriving venture capital industry. Bodies operating in the UK include The Polymer Interdisciplinary Research Centre (Polymer IRC) and Nanofactory, which focuses on emerging technologies research across universities in the Yorkshire and Humber region.


References

Impacts of the Swedish Competence Centres Programme 1995-2003 Summary Report , 2004, E.Arnold, J.Clark and S. Bussillet, Technopolis Ltd, Vinnova Analysis VA 2004:05

Conspicuous Failures and Hidden Strengths of the ITRI Model: Taiwan’s Technology Policy Toward Hard Disk Drives and CD-ROMs, 2000, G.W.Noble
The Information Storage Industry Center, University of California

NCCR Profiles – Edition 2001/02: Publication on the fourteen National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCR), Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)

NSF’s Engineering Research Centres: http://www.erc-assoc.org/

Polymer IRC: http://www.polymerirc.org/pages/

Nanofactory: http://www.nanofactory.org.uk/