Working Together
CMI forges new UK links

As part of its National Competitiveness Network programme, The Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) is linking together 33 other universities to work on improving the UK's record in competitiveness, entrepreneurship and productivity. Together with the UK Association of Science Enterprise Centres (UKSECs), CMI is launching a regular workshop programme, focusing on specific issues. Each seminar will be held at different participating universities across the country.

The programme starts on Tuesday at the White Rose Centre for Enterprise, based at the University of Sheffield, and will look at technology transfer and intellectual property.

Hosted by Bob Handscombe, Director of the White Rose, speakers include the Board Director from the Scottish Institute for Enterprise, Cathy Garner; Director of MIT's Technology Licensing Office, Lita Nelsen; Karen Hersey, Senior Counsel for Intellectual Property, MIT; and Cambridge's Director of Research Services, David Secher. Issues include sponsored research and collaboration policy, copyright and university ownership policies.

Cambridge's Director of the National Competitiveness Network, Professor Alan Hughes, said that the workshops will give representatives from British universities the opportunity to compare best practice in the UK and the US and learn from our partners at MIT. "This network provides across-the-UK opportunities to distribute curricula, co-ordinate research, and convene meetings, conferences and seminars between industry, government and universities, on the issues of competitiveness, entrepreneurship and productivity," he said.

The next seminar will be held in June at The University of Nottingham and the focus will be entrepreneurialism.

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Notes for editors:

1. The Cambridge-MIT Institute Ltd. (CMI) is a strategic alliance between the University of Cambridge (CU) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It has brought together two of the world's great universities to build on the complementary strengths of each. In 1998, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, organised a series of seminars at which the comparative performance of the UK economy in terms of competitiveness, productivity and entrepreneurship was explored. He reported that universities can play a key role in improving all three of these important aspects of UK business, through engaging in their central activities of learning and research. As a response to this, CU and MIT entered into discussion with the aim of establishing an institution that would allow wider application of the expertise of both universities, for the benefit of the UK business world. A Framework Agreement was submitted to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in November 1999. CMI was launched in July 2000.

2. There are 12 UKSECs which involve 33 universities. They were set up in 1999 as part of the Government's Science Enterprise Challenge initiative. The UKSECs are responsible for increasing the rate of spin-outs and the start-up of new technology companies at UK universities and the fuller incorporation of enterprise learning as part of core curriculum for undergraduates and postgraduates.

For further information, please contact:

1. Alison McFarquhar, Press and Publications Office, University of Cambridge. Tel: 01223 332300; e-mail: am353@cam.ac.uk