Radical innovation: crossing knowledge boundaries with ...

argued that the well-developed SET (science, engineering, technology) base in the
UK needs to become more sensitive to the social context of the market in order for
innovation rates to be improved (Department of Trade and Industry 2003). And the
NESTA report ‘in and out of sync’ argued for the need for ‘effective strategies’ to
link the ‘push’ of innovators and researchers to the ‘pull’ of social demands (Mulgan
et al. 2007). These ‘effective strategies’ will often involve developing networks and
associations beyond individual persons, firms, and organisations. This report points
out that while social innovations often fail due to a lack of intermediaries between
innovators and society, successful scientific, engineering and technology innovations
often depend upon associations with technology transfer bodies, venture capital,
universities and umbrella bodies, which specialise in “knowing where a promising
idea can find its best expression” (Mulgan et al. 2007:4).
The Cox Review argued that higher education courses should better prepare students
to work with, and understand other specialists. There is too little preparation of
scientists for the application of research in industry, and too little preparation of
creative arts students for wider uses of skills beyond academia. The report proposes
the establishment of ‘centres of excellence’ that provide multi-disciplinary courses
combining management studies, engineering and technology and the creative arts. The
outcome would be executives who better understand how to exploit creativity and
manage innovation, creative specialists better able to apply their skills…and more
engineers and scientists destined for the boardroom (Cox 2005:29).
12.2.1 Interdisciplinarity to deal with increased complexity
It is frequently noted that the context of application and the requirements for
innovation that arise from it are themselves increasingly complex and demand
collaboration across different kinds of knowledge. The Treasury report on innovation
argues that the market demand for increasingly complex technology also leads to the
need for collaboration between both different specialists and different institutions:
“Firms will continue to seek greater value from research budgets but they
will be forced to conduct research into a wider portfolio of technologies as
the complexity of products increases. This will act as a spur to greater
collaboration, with other firms, universities or contract R&D services. The
scientific content of innovation will remain substantial. Leading edge firms
will continue to target universities with the highest rankings for research”
(HM Treasury 2004:vii).
12.2.2 Connectivity and the knowledge economy
The Economic and Social Science Research Board has established several
interdisciplinary research fellowships in collaboration with other councils in order to
address current policy concerns, including joint programs with the Medical Research
Council and the Natural Environment Research Council, and has provided specific
Innovation and Interdisciplinarity 101