Impact of Covid-19

There is growing evidence that Covid-19 has impacted business innovation activities and on the ability of universities to contribute to innovation.

The response to the Covid-19 health crisis highlighted the critical importance of productive and effective partnerships between companies, universities, research institutes, public sector agencies, hospitals, charities and others in developing innovative solutions to very urgent problems. Looking forward, such innovation-driven partnerships must be at the heart of approaches to driving economic recoveries and renewal from the pandemic at the global, national and local level.

NCUB is working collaboratively with the University Commercialisation and Innovation Policy Evidence Unit at the University of Cambridge to understand the impact of Covid-19 on innovation and the wider lessons that can be learnt from the crisis.

Other Areas of Focus

R&D Taskforce

The UK Government has placed R&D and innovation at the heart of its Plan for Growth and its global ambitions. Collaboration between universities and businesses are central to achieving its aspirations.

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Joined up business focussed offer

Research and innovation are affected by many different factors – from the availability of skills, datasets, buildings and laboratories, to regulation, tax and funding. The UK needs a combined offer to drive business investment in R&D.

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Global collaboration

The UK competes for R&D investment in a global market – some 58% of private R&D investment comes from overseas companies. To achieve the Government’s aspirations for research, the UK will need to attract greater investment from and partnerships with multinational firms.

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Enhancing Knowledge Exchange

Knowledge Exchange (KE) is at the heart of university-business collaboration. Through KE, academic ideas and research are shared and external perspectives and experiences are contributed. The KE process both maximises the impact of academic work and enhances it through exposure to new sources of information.

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