Manchester Institute of Innovation Research ANNUAL REPORT 

1. Introduction and Summary
In 2011, the Institute has successfully increased its income and further improved and
expanded its output. This increase in research income is partly due to an increase in income
from the Research Councils. We have secured a range of new projects including four
significant ESRC funded projects (IPR in the Knowledge Intensive Business Sector;
Innovation strategies of SMEs in the green goods sector; Consumer Responses to Eco-
Innovations; Effects of foreign acquisition of science based firms), and a NESTA funded
project to compile and comment on existing evidence on innovation policy measures. The
number of live projects grew from 39 to 58 in any one year for the period 2007-11.
On the output side, the number of papers in high level impact journals has grown
substantially. Our publication profile and a shift towards more research council sponsored
grants highlights our strategic focus on quality output. Simultaneously, we have maintained
the high level of engagement in contract research for major stakeholders, completing 37
official reports in 2011 and starting a range of new projects with international stakeholders
(UNESCO and the Czech Government, among others). The year 2011 has also seen the
completion of a set of highly visible projects, not least in the area of Foresight where
Manchester has cemented its leading role in the national and international arena for STIrelated
foresight. We have intensified our contribution to academic and stakeholder
conferences substantially; MIoIR staff participated in 141 conferences in 2011. MIoIR staff
have also initiated a new transnational collaboration structure with colleagues from Beijing
and Georgia Tech which promises to be the seed for longer term and broadening
international collaboration (Innovation Co-Lab).
The research theme summaries in this report and the data compilation in the back of the
report give details on the range of activities.
Our executive education courses have been popular, even more so than those in 2009:
seventy two executives from twenty seven countries participated in four courses in 2011
and there are developments underway to further broaden this activity. We have hosted
twenty two academic visitors from all parts of the world in our increasingly popular MIoIR
visitor programme. In the context of our PhD strategy to create world-class framework
conditions for young researchers, we have also organised an Early Career Stage Researcher
conference, co-funded by the network EU-SPRI.
We are happy to report that in 2011 we added two high calibre academics to our staff,
Prof. Edward Feser who is now Eddie Davies Professor of Enterprise & Innovation at the
Institute and Head of Division of Innovation, Management and Policy (previously University
of Illinois); and Prof. Bruce Tether, who returned from Imperial College London to further
strengthen our team, with a focus on areas of creativity, design and skills.
In January 2011 Professor Jakob Edler took over the role of Executive Director of the
Institute, supported by a team of four Directors (Jonathan Aylen, Dr. Paul Cunningham, Dr.
Silvia Massini and Prof. Philip Shapira). The Directors are supported by the Research
Coordinator Deborah Cox and a team of four administrative staff (Liz Barker, Lisa Gledhill,
Wendy Walker and Siobhan Drugan). The new team established and implemented a
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