Taiwan Innovation Exchange FLIP

To create impact from excellent science requires not only technical solutions but also mechanisms to bring products and processes to market. In this FLexible Interchange Programme (FLIP) project Professor Iain Donnison seeks to increase his knowledge of innovation management and innovation leadership at a world leading Centre for Innovation: the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan. The FLIP project will be to study beyond the development of new technologies to tackle problems and will focus on the innovative mechanisms to bring products to market and therefore span the notorious valley of death the barrier which exists between University science and its translated into successful business opportunities. There will also be wider benefits for his home Institution, Aberystwyth University and the wider UK bioscience community. His career to date has involved positions in academia and in the private sector and the FLIP project brings this expertise together at a time when Innovation is becoming more recognized as something that the UK needs to do more of and better. Science and technology are recognized as being important in playing a role in the stimulation of economic growth and job creation. New Innovation Campuses including at Aberystywth University are exploring mechanisms by which the UK can achieve greater economic benefits from its world leading bioscience.