Category Archives: News

Priority Areas and Future Trends in the Digital Economy

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The Technology Strategy Board has identified ‘Digital’ as a core focus area for their current and future programmes. They define ‘Digital’ as the complex interaction of people, processes and technology that creates digital technologies – along with their socio-economic benefits.

The internet economy in the UK is growing at 10% a year and will account for 10% of GDP by 2016. We spend more per head on and over the internet than any other nation, and UK businesses are leaders in digital technology and its uses. Our computing and telecoms, software and data, broadcast and publishing industries together contribute over £100bn to our economy – yet the impact on service industries is only just beginning to be felt. 

In this fast-moving marketplace, smaller, agile companies are particularly prominent and form an ecosystem anchored by global businesses that set standards and supply chains. 

Challenges 

We already enjoy many of the benefits the digital sector can deliver, but challenges remain which prevent effective exploitation and the formation of new high-growth markets and business models. Of particular relevance for us are challenges that if left unresolved could block a whole market to a new digital product or service. Such challenges may be around monetization, quality, resilience, trust, interoperability, security or inclusion. 

Often such challenges are hard to resolve due to misaligned incentives, conflicting interests, conservatism amongst incumbents, lack of – or out-dated – regulations, lack of standards, incomplete or disjointed value chains and industry fragmentation.

Opportunities

The TSB aim to help businesses work together in new ways to create value from digital information, content and services; rapid and continuous innovation is needed to stay ahead of the changes sweeping across the digital economy.

They aim to mitigate the risks in moving ideas towards commercialisation. The confidence needed for progress can be built through networking and knowledge sharing, and working on projects moving from small-scale feasibility studies to more ambitious collaborative work.

The internet, with increasing mobile access, is fundamentally changing the way business is done. Entire new value systems will require companies to look far beyond their existing supplier and customer relationships and work with new partners to deliver the experiences that users require. Sustained co-working will be needed to create industry-wide conversations, across sectors and between service creators, suppliers and users.

Priority Areas and Future Trends in the Built Environment

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The UK construction industry is a large part of the economy: annual output in 2011 was £107bn. It accounts for 7.6% of UK GVA and directly employs approximately two million people. About a third of all UK construction is procured by the public sector.

Growing and aging populations, rapid urbanisation, new customer trends, changing infrastructure demands and more stringent environmental regulation are all putting pressure on our buildings, and simultaneously creating innovation opportunities. 

Within the UK, some of the largest environmental impacts are from operating buildings. To start to tackle these challenges the whole lifecycle of a building needs to be considered.  From concept – to design and construction – in commissioning and hand-over – during operation and adaption – and through to demolition and re-use –  where the cycle starts again.

The Technology Strategy Board leads in this area, with a variety of programmes and tools designed to accelerate innovation to improve sustainability in the built environment.

Challenges

Within the UK, around 45% of total UK carbon emissions come from buildings – 27% from domestic buildings and 18% from non-domestic buildings. Much of these emissions come from space heating and hot water provision. 

Construction, globally and in the UK, has a strong subcontracting culture. This means that information and innovation can spread slowly, and contracting practice limits novel approaches or technologies due to concerns over product and professional liability – both the industry and the consumer are conservative and risk averse.

Opportunities

The UK has demanding targets, backed up by policy and legislation, to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. This will require far-reaching changes in design, construction, operation, refurbishment and demolition (for re-use) across the domestic and commercial built environment.

 A rapidly emerging priority for innovation is the need to lift the focus from individual buildings to groups of buildings and ultimately cities.

 To reap the greatest benefits from the needs of adaptability, efficiency and resilience requires a more holistic whole life approach; from cradle, to grave, and repeating again, and again. When considering our buildings we need to think more broadly to include the emerging social dynamics, buildings as clusters, the communities within, and all the players along the full lifecycle of buildings.

The Technology Strategy Board and Future Funding

The Technology Strategy Board established the Low Impact Buildings Innovation Platform in 2008 to support UK industry in supplying the growing market for low-impact domestic and non-domestic new build and retrofit and to support delivery of the DCLG Code for Sustainable Homes by 2016. In consultation with industry, government and the knowledge base, the Low Impact Buildings Innovation Platform is focusing on six challenges where they can effectively support innovation:

  • Design for future climate change
  • Design and decision tools
  • Build process; allowing the supply chain to innovate together 
  • Management and performance of buildings
  • Materials and components for sustainable buildings
  • Integrating with sustainable infrastructure.

 

How can we promote ourselves internationally?

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 Symbolique 2006

The European Commission has published a Communication on ‘European higher education in the world’. This communication provides recommendations on how higher education institutions can work strategically to promote themselves outside Europe. This will document will also be a useful strategic reference point for future applications to the Erasmus+ funding stream, which will offer over €400 million per year for collaborations in education, training, youth and sport.

Further details at http://ec.europa.eu/education/higher-education/doc/com499_en.pdf

Thanks for the Blog Suggestions

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The External Projects Team wishes to thank everyone who took part in the review of the Research and Funding blog. The review has given us lots of thoughts of how to develop the site to make it better for you to use. The team will be working on these ideas over the summer.

The changes we are looking at include alterations to the style of the email updates, adaptions to the structure of the site pages to make information easier to find, and taking up some of the excellent tips from the Universities Journalism department of what makes a good blog.

We will post more updates once we know exactly what the changes will be. Thanks to everyone for their ideas.

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ESRC and ACCA sign a joint agreement

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ESRC     ACCA - The global body for professional accountants

A Memorandum of Concordat (MoC) has been signed by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants).

The two organisations have worked in partnership over several years on a number of initiatives – such as diversity, pensions, social responsible investment and climate change and now the strategic agreement seals the relationship.

The concordat will be three years, from 1st of April 2013 to 31st of March 2016. To support the delivery of the Concordat, each organisation will make a sum of £50,000 available, annually. This will be used, by mutual agreement, to sponsor joint initiatives, provide research grant funding, and internship programmes, as well as other activities, under the terms and spirit of the Concordat.

For further information go to http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-and-events/press-releases/26585/Economic_and_Social_Research_Council_and_ACCA_sign_joint_agreement.aspx?dm_i=XZA,1N3D8,9OEB28,5QF0B,1

Frost & Sullivan: These are the New Mega Trends that will Shape a Future Britain

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Frost & Sullivan: These are the New Mega Trends that will Shape a Future Britain

Exclusive analysis launched during Frost & Sullivan’s Growth, Innovation and Leadership (GIL) congress GIL 2013: Europe in London

LONDON – 10 April, 2013  In the future 81 % of us in the UK will be living in urban areas, there will be 200 million connected devices and one in four British citizens will be shopping online – the highest number in the world, per capita. The over 65s will represent one fifth of the population, becoming one of the largest consumer groups with increasing healthcare needs. The country’s South East region will grow to become the second largest region after London, accounting for 15.3 % of total GDP. This is how the UK will look like in 2025 in an exclusive analysis by Frost & Sullivan titled ‘New Mega Trends in the UK’.

In this new analysis Frost & Sullivan details and analyses 12 New Mega Trends that will drive growth and innovation in the UK. “These are new areas of growth in key industries that will help economic development, boost private sector investment and promote partnerships with overseas companies,” explains Frost & Sullivan Partner Sarwant Singh.

One of the most interesting and important Mega Trends in the UK will be Connectivity and Convergence. The UK will have 200 million connected devices (six for every household) by 2020 which means that the country is on the path to becoming a digital economy with new business models and digital innovation hubs. One of the major industries that has benefited from the proliferation of digital devices is retail. Retail in the UK is transitioning from brick and mortar supermarkets to virtual stores and online hypermarkets – merging both bricks and clicks.

The Bricks and Clicks Mega Trend is influencing most British retailers to transition from having a single/multiple channel to an integrated cross-channel model, merging physical and virtual forms of retailing. The UK will have the largest online retail penetration in the world as 26 % of all retail sales will be online by 2025. Over 80 % of entertainment products will be sold online by 2025. New retailing business models in the UK have also opened up new commercial opportunities for allied industries such as logistics. We are witnessing the introduction of innovative last mile options such as click and collect, addressing challenges associated with making urban deliveries, given the Mega Trend of Urbanization in Britain.

The UK will follow the global pattern of cities – not countries – driving wealth creation in the future. As mentioned, around 81 % of the total population in UK will live in urban centres. London accounted for 20 % of UK’s GDP in 2011 and could contribute about 25 % in 2020.  This rapid rate of urbanization will compel companies to target cities as their growth markets, with most UK cities also expected to become the micro manufacturing hubs or digital hubs of the country by 2025. Urbanization will also influence companies to become more rational and optimal in their operations, creating a new ‘smarter’ UK.

Smart is the new green. This Mega Trend will see smart initiatives replacing green concepts in many parts of the UK. For example, smart technology will find its way into most homes, with nearly five million broadband homes expected to have at least one smart home system by 2017, generating £1 billion in digital revenues. Smart Mobility will save millions of pounds from reduced congestion as more door-to-door integrated mobility solutions are introduced. A key aspect of dispensing any smart initiative would centre on smart grids which are expected to increase energy efficiency by 30 %. Nearly 43 million Smart Meters are expected to be installed in 30 million UK homes by 2019 generating £14 billion to Britain by 2020.

The study also reveals many Social Trends. For example, one out of five people in the UK will be aged over 65 by 2020. The 65+ group is expected to contribute £77 billion to the British economy by 2030 (from £42 billion in 2011), with spending power to increase to £130 billion in 2030 (£78 billion in 2011). Future opportunities from Social Trends include new services and solutions in Healthcare, and neighbourhoods for aging citizens with new technologies such as robotic care for the elderly. Health, Wellness and Wellbeing in fact would become a key Mega Trend for the UK as preventive care becomes more important and relevant to its aging society. The future of Healthcare will be focussed more on wellness and well-being that define mind, body and soul.  This will create new opportunities in e-health, regenerative medicine, personalized medicine, health kiosks, tissue engineering, nutraceuticals, healthcare tourism, cybernetics, and non-invasive surgery.

With multiple growth opportunities, the UK is undoubtedly at one of its most crucial development stages of this decade. In addition to identifying these Mega Trends, Frost & Sullivan also provides insights on the implications of these trends on the UK through its Macro to Micro analysis. The ‘Macro to Micro’ scenario analysis carried out by Frost & Sullivan presents the micro impact of each Mega Trend on a business and helps design the company’s future strategy for product and technology planning in Britain. Urbanization, for example, at the micro level, creates many investment opportunities in smart infrastructure and new market / business opportunities for innovative products targeting urban households.

To know more about ‘New Mega Trends in the UK to help shape you’re Research Strategies then please contact Naomi Arblaster n.arblaster@staffs.ac.uk

 

Horizon 2020: Funding Deal Secured

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After long negotiations a deal has finally been secured on Horizon 2020.

The Irish EU Presidency has announced that the Council and the European Parliament have finally come to an agreement on remaining outstanding issues and that a provisional deal has been secured. The deal is provisional as it still has to be endorsed by so-called Committee of Permanent Representatives in the Council. This should however be a formality.

One of the main stumbling blocks during the negotiations, the reimbursement model, has now been agreed. Horizon 2020 will operate according to the “simplification model”, so with one funding rate for all beneficiaries and a flat rate for indirect costs. The Parliament, which had been pushing for a full cost option until late into the negotiations, instead won some concessions on issues such as widening participation.

It would also appear that a deal was agreed on the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, with funding for Knowldge Innovation Communities in the areas of healthy living and active ageing, raw materials, food and added value manufacturing.
 
http://eit.europa.eu/about-us/organisation/

News of funding for Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP

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This week has been an important week for preparation for the next generation of EU funding programmes for External Projects Team and also bought news of our local EU funding allocation. Our LEP has been given a notional allocation of €161.6m (£137m) of Structural Investment Funds 2014-2020, which equates to the 14th highest allocation out of the 39 LEP’s.

IMG00019-20130626-1500SIFIS socio economic framework meeting 250613

The Structural Investment Funds, formerly known as the Common Strategic Framework (CSF), bring together ERDF (European Regional Development Fund), ESF (European Social Fund) the Cohesion Fund, EAFRD (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development) and the EMFF (European Maritime and Fisheries Fund). Emma Davies presented at the first Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP EU Investment Strategy Working Group meeting on Monday. This group will be leading the preparation of the LEP’s Structural Investment Fund and Investment Strategy (SIFIS). It was agreed that a series of challenge groups over the summer will be run to allow stakeholders to input into prioritisation for the draft strategy required for Autumn.  Further information will be circulated on how university colleagues can input into this process.  Tuesday followed up with a review of the West Midlands Socio-Economic Framework, prepared by West Midlands European Service.  This will form part of the evidence base for our local SIFIS. 

Wednesday was the Universities UK conference Europe: at the heart of internationalisation. This conference was focussed on the opportunities and policy drivers the EU presented for internationalisation of UK HEIs, considering the Bologna Process and funding opportunities for research and teaching.  It was announced at this event that the Erasmus for All programme will be changing its name to Erasmus Plus!

For further information please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk.  Details of the Structural Investment Funds and the West Midlands Socio Economic Framework can be found at http://www.wmemployers.org.uk/wmescsf.  Presentations from the UUK conference can be found at http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/events/Pages/EuropePresentations.aspx.

Reduced rate for EU funding training

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The External Projects Team have been offered two places for a Moderngov training session on accessing European funding.  The session will be held in London on 9th July. Full details of the programme are available by clicking this link http://www.moderngov.com/courses/sector-specific/accessing-european-funding-09-07-2013/. The reduced rate is £395 + VAT  per delegate – please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk by 4pm Friday 28th June for details on how to secure this reduced rate. The External Projects Team will be running internal events on EU funding in the Autumn so if this course is of interest to you but you are unable to attend, please keep an eye out for further updates.

Winner of prize draw!

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Following the recent closure of the Research and Funding Blog survey, respondents choosing to leave their name were entered into a prize drawer for up to £200 towards their professional development.  We are pleased to announce the winner is Dr Claire Gwinnett from Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Sciences. Simon Dyer from Youth Enterprise selected the winner from the draw at Wednesday’s Enterprise Exchange.  We would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone responding to the survey and attending the focus group yesterday.  The team has had valuable feedback which we are now reviewing to inform our future blog developments.