Cambridge and MIT: torchbearers to UK's enterprise future

World's top two research and business giants join forces for an international enterprise partnership

8th November 1999

A radical new approach to entrepreneurship was launched today when the Cambridge-MIT Institute was blessed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP in the presence of Baroness Blackstone, Minister for Higher Education, and Lord Sainsbury, Minister for Science.

The Institute will be funded to the tune of £84 million - £68 million coming from the Department of Trade and Industry with a further £16 million to be raised from private industry. Its function will be to undertake research and education to improve UK productivity and competitiveness; to develop research programmes to improve technology; to stimulate research spin-offs out of academe; to bring MIT's business executive programmes to the UK; and to develop common courses in science, technology, engineering and management for students.

Professor Sir Alec Broers, Cambridge's Vice-Chancellor, who has been at the forefront of Cambridge's astonishing success in both the commercial and research arenas, expressed the excitement of the heavy-weight partnership:

"The collaboration of Cambridge and MIT is a momentous one for the future of entrepreneurship in Britain as a whole. Research universities of the calibre of Cambridge and MIT are substantial engines of economic growth, and these long term strategic global partnerships are the future of higher education."

"Universities have the ability to foster and develop ideas, often over a longer time scale than commerce and industry. This means that our collaboration with MIT at faculty and student level can bring long-term benefits, and we can develop major joint research programmes."

"Our students will visit MIT to be immersed in its culture, and MIT students will learn how Cambridge continues to pioneer some of the most important research and innovation in the world."

"We must remember that an essential element of our success comes from the fact that Cambridge is strong across the broadest spectrum of subjects. Our excellence is internationally recognised, in the arts and humanities as well as in science and technology."

"For Cambridge and MIT, this Institute is the start of a dynamic and challenging partnership. We can create entrepreneurs who can use their inspiration and perspiration to build a stronger British economy. They could change the face of business and wealth creation in the UK."

"We may once have been thought of as an ivory tower - today we are a tower of hi-technology and business prowess, visible from all over the world."

Business leaders around the UK acknowledged the significance of the collaboration, which is worth over £22 million for Cambridge:

Sir John Browne, Chief Executive of BP-AMOCO:

"This partnership confirms the status of Cambridge as one of the world's great universities. I hope it will be the first of many such links between Cambridge and the USA."

Sir Richard Sykes, Chairman of GlaxoWellcome:

"This is very good news for academia, for business and for the UK. MIT has a strong track record for transfer of technology and spinning off companies, expertise we have traditionally lacked in the UK. It is far-sighted of the Government to provide funding for such a forward-looking initiative."

Chris Gent, Chief Executive of Vodafone AirTouch:

"This is a very exciting collaboration. Modern business works on a global scale and I am pleased to see two of the world's top universities working together. Cambridge and MIT are ideally suited to training the business leaders of the future."

Lord Simpson, Chief Executive of GEC:

"This is splendid news. The new knowledge-driven industries, like Marconi, depend heavily on getting the right people with the right skills and this new partnership should be a trump card in this process. The Trans-Atlantic approach reflects the way that we too are developing as a company with half our business and nearly half our employees now located in the USA."

Alex Trottman, Former Chief Executive of Ford Motor Company:

"I am delighted by this development. As a businessman who has spent roughly half of his career in the United Kingdom and half in the United States, I am convinced that the Cambridge-MIT relationship will create major social and economic benefits on both sides of the Atlantic."

Lord Simon of Highbury, former minister and Chairman of BP, currently advisor to the Cabinet Office:

"This is a world-class project and a brilliant concept for an educational alliance. It will encourage breakthroughs in entrepreneurship and new technology applications. It will contribute to the development of the European market in knowledge-based industries, which Government knows is critical for sustainable economic growth."

Martin Sorrel, Chairman of WPP:

"This is a wonderful initiative by the Government, as in business (and education is a business), strategic alliances and joint ventures are an extremely effective way of sharing knowledge and developing new ideas. The combined power of Cambridge and MIT will enhance the UK's competitive position through improvements in enterpreneurship, product developments and technology. It will also ensure that both universities continue to be pre-eminent, global institutions."

Robin Saxby, Chief Executive of ARM Holdings

"We are excited by this imaginative move, which we expect will create many high growth technology companies similar to our own."

Photographs are available via ISDN and e-mail. Contact Susie Hawksworth, Design Studio Administrator, University of Cambridge. Tel: 01223 339397; e-mail: seh34@cam.ac.uk


Notes for Editors:

  1. Further information on the web:

  2. University of Cambridge

    The University of Cambridge is one of the world's leading universities. It aims to foster and develop academic excellence across a wide range of subjects, whilst continuing to nurture the wider intellectual and cultural role which has characterised its activities for centuries. It is a publicly funded organisation with 16,000 full-time and 15,000 continuing education students; its undergraduates are split equally between the arts and sciences. The collegiate nature of the University of Cambridge is a fundamental part of the University's history and organisational structure.
    With an outstanding record in the arts and humanities, Cambridge also has a strong history of scientific research and innovation - from the genius of Newton through the discovery of the electron a century ago, to Crick and Watson's work on DNA, to the internationally famous cosmologist Professor Stephen Hawking. The twentieth century has seen unprecedented developments in the realm of science and technology, and Cambridge has played a vital role in these developments. The University of Cambridge receives one of the highest levels of research income of any university in the United Kingdom. This strong research base has stimulated the 'Cambridge Phenomenon', the largest cluster of high technology and knowledge-based businesses in Europe. It's estimated that around 25,000 people are now employed in over 1,200 technology-based companies in and around Cambridge, earning it the name 'Silicon Fen'. The University of Cambridge continues to look for new and exciting partnerships. It will work with other major universities to further academic and strategic interests, and with industrial partners, through initiatives such as embedded laboratories, where academics from the university and industry work side by side.

  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts is one of the world's pre-eminent research universities, dedicated to advancing knowledge and educating students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century. It is known for rigorous academic programmes, cutting-edge research, a diverse campus community, and its long-standing commitment to working with the public and private sectors to bring new knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. The Institute is a co-educational, privately endowed university, with more than 900 faculty (staff) and 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students. It is organised into five schools - Architecture and Planning, Engineering, Humanities and Social Science, Management, and Science. MIT's commitment to innovation has led to a host of scientific breakthroughs and technological advances. In the first national study of the economic impact of a research university, the BankBoston Economics Department found that graduates of MIT have founded 4,000 firms, translating their knowledge into products, services, and jobs. These firms, in 1994, employed over one million people and generated world-wide revenues of $232 billion. Compared with nations, these MIT-related companies would rank as the 24th largest economy in the world. Most (70 percent) of the research conducted on the MIT campus is supported by the US government, but the Institute leads the nation in the amount of such funding received from private industry (nearly 20 percent).

  4. Cambridge Research and Innovation

    The University of Cambridge has a formidable track record when it comes to breaking down the barriers between science and business and promoting the circulation of ideas and money.

    • The University spearheaded the rise of science and innovation parks in the region to foster start-up companies. The Cambridge Science Park was the first of its kind in England when it was set up in 1970 by Trinity College, with the St John's Innovation Centre following in 1987. In June this year the Enterprise Link organisation was launched at the St John's Centre to advise and help early-stage, knowledge-based businesses.
    • The Cambridge University Local Industry Links was set up as a forum for the University and local industry to meet and discuss areas of mutual interests.
    • The University has also attracted an impressive range of investment from international businesses, as well as seeing a number of its own spin-off companies enjoy global successes. The extraordinary local growth of high technology is now referred to as the Cambridge Phenomenon.
    • It was announced in June this year that BP-AMOCO is establishing a new institute at the University of Cambridge with a £25 million grant. The institute will co-ordinate work between five University Departments and will conduct work into multi-phase fluid flow.
    • Some of the world's top industries have decided to set up embedded research laboratories at Cambridge, including Zeneca, Rolls-Royce, AT&T and Microsoft.
    • ARM Holdings, spun off by the Acorn computer group, designs high-performance 'embedded' chips, used to power portable and consumer devices such as hand-held computers. The company was founded in 1990 as a Silicon Valley, Cambridge joint venture, with 50% of its founding engineers being Cambridge graduates.
    • Cambridge Display Technologies was set up in 1992 to exploit the discovery of light emitting polymers (LEPs), or plastic that glows. The company is now valued at £80 million and is expecting to see its first application - for backlights to mobile phones, to be on the streets by the end of the year.
    • Cantab Pharmaceuticals, a spin-off company from the University, has emerged as the fastest growing technology firm in the eastern region.
    • Zeus Technology, set up by Cambridge University graduates Adam Twiss and Damian Reeves is a web server software firm soon expected to be worth £200 million.
    • 25,000 people are now employed in over 1,200 technology-based companies in and around Cambridge and the city was recently identified as one of the top 10 rivals for Silicon Valley, in Newsweek magazine.

    Influential Cambridge figures in the economics sphere include:
    • Professor Amartya Sen of Trinity College, who won the 1998 Nobel Prize for Economics.
    • Professor Sir James Mirrlees who won the 1996 Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on taxation strategies.
    • Willem H Buiter, Professor of International Macroeconomics at Cambridge University and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, Bank of England. He is also a fellow of Trinity College.

For more information, contact:

  1. Susannah Baker or Louise Simpson, Head of Press and Publications, University of Cambridge. Tel: 01223 332300; E-mail: ucam-press-office@lists.cam.ac.uk
  2. Ken D. Campbell, Director, The MIT News Office, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tel: 00 1 617 253 2700; E-mail: newsoffice@mit.edu; WWW: http://web.mit.edu/

Copyright © 1999 University of Cambridge
Source: Press and Publications Office, November 1999
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