UK’s Knowledge Transfer Network says, ‘Don’t shoot the messenger!' in the Corona crisis - Part 1
- Summary:
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The first part of an extended conversation with Jon Kingsbury, Strategic Development Director at the UK’s Knowledge Transfer Network reveals much to celebrate – just don’t mention ventilators!
Innovation and expertise in new technologies will help the UK meet the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, and emerge as strong as possible into the post-lockdown world. That's the view of Jon Kingsbury, Director of Strategic Development at the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), Innovate UK's networking partner.
He says:
We still have to maintain our global standing, and the risk is that COVID-19 deflects people from thinking proactively about innovation. Even though the world may be different after COVID-19, we still have to maintain our competitive advantage in many sectors where we are strong - and where we need to be strong again.
KTN maintains a COVID-19 resource hub and has been supporting a range of initiatives to help fight the virus, including in additive manufacturing (3D printing), AI, cybersecurity, 5G, energy, food production, and digital transformation.
New money on the table
In March, it launched a funding competition for new ways to combat and recover from the crisis. The oversubscribed round closed on 17 April, with applicants vying for individual grants of up to £50,000 for ventures that should kick off from May.
The context is a £1.25 billion package of government support for startups and other innovators to ensure they continue receiving enough investment to stay afloat during the crisis. This includes the £500 million Future Fund, backed by the British Business Bank and launching in May, and a pledge of £750 million in support via Innovate UK's own targeted grants and loans. These are in addition to the government-backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and other measures.
As Innovate UK's conversation starter, KTN has an under-acknowledged role in connecting researchers, academics, startups, innovators, accelerators, and investors behind the scenes, in line with the Industrial Strategy. In the run-up to Brexit, for example, the Innovate-UK-branded Expert Missions to the US, China, South Korea, Japan, Israel, and elsewhere, were organised and facilitated by KTN. The aim was to open new doors to British skills in robotics, AI, cybersecurity, and more.
The UK's new Industrial Strategy, which KTN and Innovate UK work in support of, is a solid, forward-looking approach to modernising the economy, but one that the general public has largely been unaware of. It's a shame, therefore, that its positive message has largely been drowned out by the noise and division over Brexit.The failure of government to communicate the strategy more widely - outside of the technology community - represents a missed opportunity for it to have set out a more inspiring and inclusive vision for its citizens than the wasteful, nationalistic, and self-defeating debate over Europe.
For example, the Industrial Strategy could have helped to counter the dystopian view of technologies such as AI and robotics that is typically pushed by the mainstream media.Meanwhile, KTN, Innovate UK, and others, are working behind the scenes to connect innovators and find bright ideas, largely unseen by the public.
Kingsbury says:
I agree with you about the Industrial Strategy [being a missed opportunity to inspire people]. But I am hopeful, or rather optimistic, that the government now understands the importance of innovation.
KTN's core purpose now is to kickstart new conversations across a broad range of disciplines, which include health, biotechnology, agriculture, energy, design, ICT, manufacturing, transport, materials, and defence - all of which have been pushed into the spotlight by the pandemic.
He explains:
There was an existing need within industry to make new types of connections. And the diversity of those connections is important. In the crisis, companies have been saying they need to go beyond their existing supply chains.
KTN is an organisation that has tens of thousands of industry connections. Suddenly we were picking up on the fact that people were saying, ‘OK, how do we rethink this problem? How do we get hold of these materials? That was already happening before the lockdown. We were responding to an increased number of business queries. We were picking up those signals.
The ventilator problem
Of course, KTN's biggest client is the government itself, which has been responding to the crisis in the face of mounting criticism. With the UK mortality rate now twice that of the US, relative to its population size (the US has twice the number of deaths, but a population nearly five times larger), that criticism has been justified.
The blame for this can hardly be placed at KTN's door, but it has been involved in enabling some of the conversations about the technology response. Kingsbury says
When we work with the UK government, we are really responding to rapid requests. As the UK's innovation agency, Innovate UK receives requests from central government, then it comes to us to see if we can help. The benefit of that is that we're not contributing to the noise. Lots of different companies may offer to help, but we connect people in a very structured way.
But with its main role being a conversation starter, it's inevitable that not everything works out the way that KTN (or the government) hopes.
On 30 March, for example, KTN put out an announcement to one its networks saying:
The KTN has been asked by Gov to help identify companies who can support the production of ventilators at scale urgently, including sourcing injection moulding, tool making, and related companies across all sectors. Do your companies have these capacities, or do you know others in these areas?
With the UK's ventilator strategy a source of constant criticism since then, and with non-traditional manufacturers such as Dyson and JCB behind schemes that have since been abandoned, what role did KTN play in a debacle that could be seen as favouritism for Brexit supporting companies?
We were approached via Innovate UK to work with some Formula One [sic] teams to identify any design and manufacturing companies who could help bring in parts. A new producer of these devices is not really aware of some of the supply chains that already exist in their standard manufacture. So being able to bring in companies that have certain capabilities was useful. We were able to do some triage of which companies were probably the most suitable and put them in touch with each other.
The same is the case for PPE [personal protective equipment], and hand sanitiser - identifying manufacturers and the right types of material. We've also been working with the new Vaccines Taskforce [trailed by the government on 17 April 2020, following the 2018 announcement of a new Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre, which is due to open in 2022]. The idea is to bring all of our connections together to speed up the design and manufacture of vaccines."
We know that vaccine research is a global, collaborative effort. So what is the latest news on the more local challenge: the UK's ventilator programme? He says:
I think one new one has been approved, and others are in the pipeline. Once you have a range of designs, then they need regulatory approval.
But why wasn't it possible simply to scale up the production of existing ventilators from manufacturers who were already making approved equipment, rather than seek to reinvent the wheel?
That has happened as well. It's been a double track, ramping up production plus identifying new designs. And this is what I want to get onto, really. At times of crisis, innovation can really help in finding new ways of doing things, both with new designs and new practices. I think this is absolutely key, and the diversity of connections can encourage that.
My take
As a networking organisation, KTN provides a critical and under-appreciated service in helping innovators of one kind meet innovators of another to start conversations. Such a facility is needed when researchers and startups are not always aware of what others are doing, or what opportunities might be available at home and abroad.
On the question of whether a pandemic is the right time to experiment with new approaches - rather than invest, urgently, in ramping up established ones - KTN has simply been carrying out requests from the government to connect businesses, in line with Whitehall's own policy objectives.
In this regard, KTN isn't the messenger; but it has put the messenger in touch with the intended recipients and allowed those conversations to start. However, wider policy decisions are completely outside its remit as an enabling agency.
Whether the government itself has made competent, scientifically informed decisions quickly enough in the crisis is an entirely different question. The impression that policy may have been driven by ideology as much as need is unlikely to go away, at least until an enquiry can establish the facts.
• Part two explores the investment landscape, post Covid-19.