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UCL lecturer wins grant to plot innovative route out of recession

11 August 2009

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Scientists at work ucl.ac.uk/msi/" target="_self">UCL Management Science & Innovation
  • Economic and Social Research Council
  • A lecturer from UCL has won an award to investigate how British firms can encourage and promote innovation to haul the country out of recession.

    Dr Simcha Jong (UCL Management Science & Innovation) won the £289,000 grant for his project 'New modes of innovation: Towards a science-based R&D paradigm'.

    The award was made in the context of the government's Innovation Research Initiative, a joint initiative by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

    New science-based industries such as the life sciences industry have remained resilient despite the downturn and gained a prominent place in policy responses to the current crisis.

    Dr Jong will examine successful organisational models required to manage science-led product innovation and identify the challenges British firms face in adopting these models.

    The project will entail the construction and analysis of a database on the scientific, patenting and product development activities of around 4,780 therapeutic biotechnology firms.

    Dr Jong will also study four American biotechnology firms that have been particularly effective in leveraging relationships with university laboratories.

    These will be compared to four British firms in a bid to identify the particular challenges managers of British science-based firms face in developing R&D capabilities.

    Image: scientists at the UCL Ear Institute.

     

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