Integrated Knowldege Centres (now known as Innovation and Knowledge Centres) are a new approach from EPSRC to provide an environment that supports knowledge exploitation in order to increase the economic impact of EPSRC research and postgraduate training. IKCs bring a completely new dimension through the provision of funding to service and develop the knowledge transfer interface with business, strongly tied to a programme of pre-competitive collaborative research and postgraduate training. To pilot this programme, EPSRC have provided £7m over five years to fund the Cambridge Integrated Knowledge Centre (CIKC) in advanced manufactruring technologies for photonics and electronics.

Outputs

• 7 major technology development projects with industry partners
• 25 new projects initiated from CIKC projects
• £19m of leveraged funding
• 2 spin-off companies with others under consideration
• 45 industrial partners involved in CIKC projects
• 11 person-years of embedded researcher time
• 609 person-days use of equipment by industry
• high-calibre young scientists and engineers with additional training and experience.
• 215 young researchers attended CIKC training in entrepreneurship and innovation

The CIKC model is proving to be effective in generating economic value from academic science and technology and producing high-calibre young scientists and engineers ready for industry.