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."
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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
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Notes for Editors:
- Further information on the web:
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.
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).
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:
- 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
- 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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