BT Innovate &
Design
Research &
Technology
UK Knowledge Economy- Skills, Infrastructure & Services
Dr Ivan Boyd
May 2012
Contents
 Knowledge economy ecosystem
 UK knowledge economy
 BT’s supporting infrastructure and services
 Supporting ICT education
 Final thoughts and a question
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KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY
ECOSYSTEM
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Simplified Knowledge Economy Ecosystem
Global Trading Partners
Policy
Large
companies
SMEs
Investment
Start-ups
Private Sector
R&D/
Design
Skills
ICT
Universities
Social
Care
Schools
Public Sector
Key Enablers
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Health
Care
Global Trading Partners
4
Elements for Success
Element
Evidence and Experience
Supportive Policy
“systems and processes to create new markets – from
advertising to public procurement; there has to be a steady
supply of entrepreneurs”- Lord Sainsbury
- Encourages and supports private investment
- Demands innovation from public procurement
- Attracts global talent & prioritises skills development
World class Universities
Applied research in R&D labs
Local and Global Collaboration
“universities and research centres creating knowledge” – Lord
Sainsbury
“Great discoveries … involve the cooperation of many
minds… when I look at the subsequent developments I feel
the credit is due to others rather than to myself”
Start-up and Growth Culture
Knowledge Transfer
“institutions who transfer knowledge into companies small
and large” – Lord Sainsbury
ICT
“One of the 4 pillars of the Knowledge economy” World Bank Institute
Investment
-
Skills, technical and leadership
University research
Funding for creation and growth
“…. there has to be a steady supply of entrepreneurs; finance
has to be mobilised – and skills developed” – Lord Sainsbury
Effective Clusters
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THE UK KNOWLEDGE
ECONOMY
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UK Knowledge Economy – Part 1
“to secure its place in the global economy, we need a decade of
balanced growth…This balanced growth can only come from one
place: the knowledge economy” - The Work Foundation
How healthy is it?
•
Provides 45 per cent of UK employment
•
UK IT industry is growing at five to eight times the national average
•
Delivers almost 50 per cent of UK value added
•
Successful knowledge-based services traded globally– high-tech services,
consultancy and technical, financial services, media and educational
•
“The BBC. Not just the world’s best public service broadcaster, but
arguably the most creative and technologically innovative of all” - Schmidt
•
As a share of GDP, the UK invests more in intangibles than Germany,
France, Japan, Finland and Sweden and only slightly less than the US
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UK Knowledge Economy –Part 2
“We must save our ideas from the ‘valley of death’ - Lord Browne
How healthy is it?
•
“Too many ideas fall into the ‘valley of death’ between lab and market or
are commercialised overseas” – Lord Browne
•
“your track record isn’t great. The UK is the home of so many media-related
inventions. You invented photography, TV, computers in both concept and
practice. Yet today, none of the world’s leading exponents in these fields
are from the UK”
•
“The number of applicants to Computer Science/IT related courses has
declined from 31,000 in 2001 to 15,000 in 2007” (and that decline has
continued)
•
“I was flabbergasted to learn that today computer science isn’t even taught
as standard in UK schools. That is just throwing away your great computing
heritage” - Schmidt
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UK Knowledge Economy – Healthy or Unhealthy?
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UK Knowledge Economy – Healthy or Unhealthy?
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UK Knowledge Economy – a personal view
Element
RAG
Status
- Encourages and supports private investment
- Demands innovation from public procurement
- Attracts global talent & prioritises skills
development
R&D Tax credit √
Patent Box √
Public procurement?
Education?
Immigration policy?
World class Universities
3 in top 10, 12 in top 100
R&D labs applied research
Reduction in industrial R&D labs. New Catapult centres
Local and Global Collaboration
90% of UK universities have international research
links. EBTIC, IU-ATC
Start-up and Growth Culture
Valley of death between lab and market
Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge Transfer Networks
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
Supportive Policy
Investment
-
Skills, technical and leadership
University research
Funding for creation and growth
Maintained investment in science and technology √
Reduced numbers taking STEM subjects X
Risk adverse and conservative funding outlook X
Clusters
Cambridge, Oxford, Tech City
ICT
JANET, e-infrastructure, UK communications
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BT’s SUPPORTING
INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES
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BT’s supporting ICT Infrastructure
21st Century Network
• £10bn investment in UK National
infrastructure
• Key technologies: optical, ethernet,
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) & IP
• Multi-service network for both voice & data
Superfast Broadband
• 10 million premises passed in 2012
• Installing 50000 new cabinets at a rate of
3000 cabinets per quarter
• Laying 3m km of fibre across the UK
• Doubled Fibre To The Cabinet product
speed to 80/20 Mbit/s
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Britain from above – Andrew Marr, BBC
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BT Services
BT wins deal to connect research
centres
BT has won a contract with a telecoms
network that connects more than 1,300
education and research sites in France and
around the world. Under the deal with the
French National Telecommunications Network
for Technology, Education and Research
(RENATER), BT will supervise, manage and
operate its fibre-based internet protocol (IP)
network round-the-clock, and supply and
maintain infrastructure equipment.
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SUPPORTING ICT EDUCATION
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Why get involved in ICT Education?
• Significant reduction in students taking Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
subjects - A UK skills crisis is looming.
• Research studies suggest that young people
particularly value information on jobs and careers if
obtained in a real workplace and through contacts
with working people. OECD (2010), Learning for
Jobs
Play our part in creating enthusiasm for
science, engineering and IT
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e-mentoring scheme
Secure platform
that also ensures
there is only
anonymous
student/mentor
interaction
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Typical Discussion Topics
Topics of conversation have included
• How our business/sector works
• What BT does
• How we use different technologies
• How different technologies work
• Advice on programming problems
• What makes a good web site/feed back on student web-site design
• The Data Protection act and how it affects business
• Our approach to reducing our carbon footprint
• Project planning and management
• Developing a database
• Feedback on student CVs
• What university is like
• What it’s like being an apprentice
...and lots, lots more
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e-mentoring scheme
And there’s access to a whole
load of useful resources as well
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FINAL THOUGHTS AND A
QUESTION
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Reminder: UK Knowledge Economy – a personal view
Element
RAG
Status
- Encourages and supports private investment
- Demands innovation from public procurement
- Attracts global talent & prioritises skills
development
R&D Tax credit √
Patent Box √
Public procurement?
Education?
Immigration policy?
World class Universities
3 in top 10, 12 in top 100
R&D labs applied research
Reduction in industrial R&D labs. New Catapult centres
Local and Global Collaboration
90% of UK universities have international research
links. EBTIC, IU-ATC
Start-up and Growth Culture
Valley of death between lab and market
Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge Transfer Networks
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
Supportive Policy
Investment
-
Skills, technical and leadership
University research
Funding for creation and growth
Maintained investment in science and technology √
Reduced numbers taking STEM subjects X
Risk adverse and conservative funding outlook X
Clusters
Cambridge, Oxford, Tech City
ICT
JANET, e-infrastructure, UK communications
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UAE Knowledge Economy - Your assessment?
Element
RAG
Supportive Policy
- Encourages and supports private investment
- Demands innovation from public procurement
- Attracts global talent & prioritises skills development
World class Universities
R&D labs applied research
Local and Global Collaboration
Start-up and Growth Culture
Knowledge Transfer
Investment
-
Skills, technical and leadership
University research
Funding for creation and growth
Clusters
ICT
If you want to be incrementally better: Be competitive. If you
want to be exponentially better: Be cooperative. - Unknown
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THANK YOU
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