There has been considerable interest in the role of universities in wealth creation in recent years, largely in response to the shift of global manufacturing from the older developed countries to other locations, particularly China and the Far East. Western economies have accordingly been forced to consider the basis of their continued growth and prosperity and many have concluded that the answer is to become ‘knowledge economies’ in which a significant proportion of economic value stems from innovation, R&D, the creative industries, professional services, and so on.

Discussions about the knowledge economy have been accompanied by a re-consideration of the role of the modern university. Countries such as the UK, which tend to be strong in research into basic science and technology (much of which is conducted in universities) often fail to show a corresponding prowess at commercializing this basic science.  It has been suggested that one of the reasons for this asymmetry is a gap between universities and business that makes knowledge transfer across the university-industry boundary problematic. 

There have been many policy initiatives in the UK to overcome this gap, including the establishment of Science Enterprise Centres; the establishment of technology transfer offices, incubators and science parks; Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and the establishment of educational programmes that combine the skills of business with those of science and technology. The purpose of this workshop is to consider the last of these, that is, new forms of educational programmes specifically designed to combine science with business and policy. 

Workshop Aims

The purpose of this workshop is to consider new forms of educational programmes specifically designed to combine science with business and policy.  The emphasis will be on the lessons learned from some of the multi-disciplinary graduate education-related activities at the University of Cambridge, initiated by the Cambridge-MIT Institute, and specifically on how these have aimed to integrate aspects of policy, science enterprise and professional practice into their teaching.  Specifically, the workshop will explore the following:

• Ways in which multi-disciplinary graduate (Masters level) programmes contribute to the knowledge economy.
• The intersects of technology, business and policy involving practitioners as well as educators
• Pedagogical and organisational issues relating to programme delivery through encouraging cross discipline engagement and support.
• The benefits of collaboration across institutional partners.  

Participants

Speakers will include: representatives from UK Research Councils, Government, the European Union and industry managers who will define the growing demand for graduates trained to apply their specialist knowledge effectively in a non-academic environment. Alumni from the six CMI MPhils will also be present to relate how they have been able to act as catalysts and change agents since graduating with fresh perspectives on their science and technological expertise. It is expected that the event will be of benefit to both Universities and employers  who are also planning to develop, and recruit from, similar courses in the future.

Workshop Programme