Sense at the centre

摘要

The latest weapon in the long-running battle to get more innovation out of the undoubted inventiveness of the UK is the innovation centre. In England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, new collaborative research-based organisations are being set up with industry and academia involvement to attempt to address what is sometimes referred to, only partly in jest, as the "valley of death". The valley is the space between, on one side, the high peaks of science and technology research, concentrated in universities and, on the other, the world-class companies with established market-leading but mature products and services. Different business areas have been identified as potentially lucrative to exploit the research base and develop new ideas and in Scotland, sensors have been picked as promising territory.