The Connected University report examines the contribution universities make to the economy and how this can be scaled up.

Key findings:

• The way universities interact with businesses is evolving: the process of formal knowledge transfer – developing spin-out companies, profiting from patents and licences – has been professionalised.
• Universities will need to demonstrate the public and economic benefit of spending on science, technology and research. There are several ways for them to do this.
• Local government should look at how it applies planning regulations to universities, giving priority to requests to develop places where firms and universities can interact.
• The funding system should also take into account the importance of university-business interaction.

With the collapse of the UK's financial services sector, this report investigates how our universities can be used to create innovative businesses that will be essential to us emerging strongly from the recession.

The Connected University report begins by examining the multifaceted contribution universities make to the economy, highlighting their importance as sources of knowledge, and skilled employees, and as the centres for regional economic clusters.

Eight case studies show how thriving clusters of economic activity have grown up around leading UK universities, and the effect of recent policy and university strategy in helping this to happen. 

Authors:

Michael Kitson, Jeremy Howells, Richard Braham and Stian Westlake