Innovation Index project launched!

[Richard Halkett]

Tonight, we launched the Innovation Index project and announced a 'Call for Ideas' that will be focused on this website and remain open until 5pm on Friday September 12th, 2008. Each question in the ‘Call for Ideas’ forms a separate thread in the discussion forum area of this site.

The evening was opened by NESTA's CEO, Jonathan Kestenbaum, who welcomed the audience and introduced David Currie, Chair of Ofcom and Chair of the Index Advisory Board. David spoke on the topic of 'What gets measured gets done'. He pointed out that while essential to the UK's future, gathering new data and metrics was a challenging task - and pointed to the unfortunate effects of some targets on biofuels and in some areas of public services as examples. He closed by emphasising the collaboration at the heart of the Innovation Index project, emphasising that a diversity of viewpoints would be essential to its success.

I then spoke, introducing the Index project using the presentation available in the 'Innovation Index library' discussion thread.

Ian Pearson MP, Minister for Science and Innovation at DIUS, emphasised that he wanted the Innovation Index to lead the world in the way in which it captured innovation. He recognised that there would not always be lessons for government action but that (at the very least), policymakers would have a more accurate impression of the state of the nation.

Vicky Pryce, Joint Head of the Government Economic Service and Director General - Economics, BERR, focused on the importance of the Index in tracking the government's performance against PSA Target 1 - productivity. She spoke further about tracking not only the elements of innovation performance, but their inter-relationships.

Ben Verwaayen, Chief Executive of BT, spoke of the overwhelming pressures of globalisation (an opportunity and a threat) and of enviromental sustainability. In his time as Chief Executive, the company's staff in India had grown from 5 to 26,000.

Mark Britnell, Director General, Commissioning and System Management at the Department of Health spoke of the centrality of innovation to the NHS and Department of Health, particularly in the light of Lord Darzi's recent review. He spoke of the creation of a £200m 'innovation fund' that would be used to explore new ideas within the sector.

Assorted notes from discussion:

* Tim Barnes (Executive Director, UCL Advances) spoke of the efficiency of the UK science system (R&D => patents => spin outs) and of the need to be effective at adopting innovations as well as generating them.

* John Barber spoke of the weakness of many firm data and (yet) of the need to focus data collection efforts on those data if the final design of the Index was to be practicable.

* In response to a question from the floor, Ben Verwaayen commented on the importance of process and organisational innovation - that because of this the United States (in the guise of Starbucks) was now selling coffee back to Italy.

* Dani Salvadori (Head of Enterprise & Innovation, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, University of London) spoke of the iterative nature of much innovation and posed the challenge: how do you measure networks?

* Mark Britnell referenced the new effort to gather data under the auspices of 'NHS Evidence'

* Vicky Pryce emphasised the importance of effective management and its role as a multiplier of innovation inputs - perhaps especially in services companies.

* Ian Pearson MP observed that regulation could be both good and bad for innovation - driving it in some cases (cf. clean energy) and possibly obstructing it in others.

* Paul Stoneman (Research Professor, Warwick Business School) observed that innovation was not an end in itself and asked what were the panels views on the outcome that we were *really* trying to measure?

* Mark Britnell observed that in much of the NHS, spreading best practice was perhaps where the greatest gains could be made in the next few years - diffusion rather than generation of innovation.

* Marcus Gibson (Managing Director, Gibson Index) observed that his company's study of high tech SMEs had revealed that the majority received their first sizeable orders from non-UK clients.

* Alan Freeman (GLA Economics) wanted the Index to help highlight people as innovators, not the firms in which they sit, and to better track the impact of creative people and inputs on the wider economy. [This, of course, links with NESTA's existing strand of work on 'The Arts & Innovation'].