Over 140 companies are already working directly in sensor system technologies in Scotland, with quite a number in offshore oil & gas.
Read the website blurb and it says that the Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems (CENSIS) was described as a game changer for Scotland in April 2013.
One of a family of eight technology innovation centres set up around that time by the Scottish Funding Council, CENSIS was to be a catalyst to an apparently “already rapidly growing technology market”.
It is claimed that the sensor and imaging systems (SIS) market is rocketing with a growth rate in excess of 48% per annum. With over 140 companies already working directly in sensor system technologies in Scotland, generating more than £2.5billion per annum, the view is that such companies and others within their supply chain will benefit from targeted R&D, which is where CENSIS fits in. Quite a slice are firms active in offshore oil & gas.
Universities
It was set up with a grant of £10million over five years. In addition to that, its CEO Ian Reid says there was also £2.5million in capital allocated to enable the catalyst to “put some facilities into universities specifically for sensor and imaging type projects”.
On top of that, the SFC also funds 20 MSc places a year for a sensor & imaging systems (SIS) Master’s Degree.
CENSIS got its grant letter late 2013 and was launched in January 2014, but Reid didn’t join until May 2014, which means the Aberdeen-based organisation is a year old in operational terms.
The basket of eight catalysts that are together expected to be funded to the tune of around £120million over five years. This compares with £450million over 10 years for the failed Scottish Enterprise Intermediary Technology Institutes scheme.
But Reid insists there are distinctions to be made between today’s approach and what went before, despite the fact that both initiatives rely on the public purse.
Reid: “The current crop of innovation centres are very much a SFC creation as opposed to Scottish Enterprise. In terms of the ITI’s, there were important lessons for all of us in the innovation space, so I’ve been trying to learn.
“The message I’m getting back is that they didn’t work as well as they might have done and one of the issues seems to have been the treatment of intellectual property.”
In fact IP was critical. SE demanded that this be owned by the ITI’s, not the firms fostered.
Economic value
“The CENSIS model is, and it’s not lip service, the only place where intellectual property is going to create economic value is in the industrial base. That’s where it should properly reside. Obviously, there are all sorts of rules associated with universities and university funding and there has to be some quid pro quo with them regarding IP.
“At CENSIS, it is policy that we will not own IP.
“As for template arrangements with our university partners, the basic principle is, when you’re creating the foreground IP of a project, there needs to be a clear path to licensing that to the company in a fair and equitable way to enable them to exploit it.
“Also, and this is often overlooked, any background IP that’s needed to effectively exploit the foreground IP also has to be available on those terms.”
The fact that some of the technology development activities in focus under the family of eight innovation centres is common to the failed ITI’s is seen by Reid as good, as it is clear recognition of their potential future value to the Scottish and wider UK economies. That includes energy. But Reid warns that the academic research base in Scotland is disproportionately heavyweight when compared to the size of the Scottish economy and population.
He warns too that there needs to be much better coupling up of that resource to the industries that matter north of the border . . . much more effective exploitation. He thinks that is the angle that SFC comes from.
So how is Reid going to foster fit-for-purpose R&D that is near market and fit for purpose? He only has a small pot of money
“Out of that £10million, we have to staff up and have, after five years, a model that is sustainable,” he says. Also out of that money we have decided to ring-fence some to spend on an EngD (Engineering Doctorate) programme to be delivered by four partnered universities . . . Edinburgh, Glasgow, Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt.
“The focus will be on SIS. It’s an Eng D so it’s designed to have projects from industry that are real; working on near-term exploitable projects.”
Reid says he has three main sets of tools in the CENSIS bag with which to try and create something relevant.
They comprise:
Enterprise skills and training;
Strategic outreach, which is aimed at bringing academics and industry together. A virtual organisation has been established . . . “spokes” designed to reach into the industrial base with a view to working with industrialists to articulate industrial need.
Funded projects (about 25% of the original grant is earmarked for this) which fall into two main categories. They are collaborative research where there is a university partner and an industrial partner, and where CENSIS can commission a strategic research project at a university on behalf of a sector.
That’s the toolkit.
According to Reid, the overriding necessity is to be able to articulate industrial need.
“That is surprisingly difficult in the area that we operate. There are some areas like semi-conductors where they publish a set of public domain roadmaps that everybody signs up to in so much detail that equipment and materials companies can go ahead and plan product developments to intersect the roadmap in five to 10 years.
“That’s a level of sophistication that simply doesn’t exist in most industries.
“And the big challenge that we have at CENSIS is that sensors and imaging systems is such a broad area that we could draw upon a whole host of technologies from simple to gee-whizz exciting quantum technologies and we could be supplying those solutions to the oil & gas industry, subsea engineering, defence, aeronautics, environmental monitoring and others.”
SIS is huge! It’s therefore a tough call for Reid. But time will tell whether it will really work, not least in upstream oil & gas. For sure, however, he sees subsea as a top bet.
Read the website blurb and it says that the Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems (CENSIS) was described as a game changer for Scotland in April 2013.
One of a family of eight innovation centres set up around that time by the Scottish Funding Council, CENSIS was to be a catalyst to an apparently “already rapidly growing technology market”.
It is claimed that the sensor and imaging systems (SIS) market is rocketing with a growth rate in excess of 48% per annum. With over 140 companies already working directly in sensor system technologies in Scotland, generating more than £2.5billion per annum, the view is that such companies and others within their supply chain will benefit from targeted R&D, which is where CENSIS fits in. Quite a slice are firms active in offshore oil & gas.
It was set up with a grant of £10million over five years. In addition to that, its CEO Ian Reid says there was also £2.5million in capital allocated to enable the catalyst to “put some facilities into universities specifically for sensor and imaging type projects”.
On top of that, the SFC also funds 20 MSc places a year for a sensor & imaging systems (SIS) Master’s Degree.
CENSIS got its grant letter late 2013 and was launched in January 2014, but Reid didn’t join until May 2014, which means the Aberdeen-based organisation is a year old in operational terms.
The basket of eight catalysts that are together funded to the tune of around £80million – call it £100million over five years, follow in the wake of the failed £450million Scottish Enterprise Intermediary Technology Institutes scheme.
But Reid insists there are distinctions to be made between today’s approach and what went before, despite the fact that both initiatives rely on the public purse.
Reid: “The current crop of innovation centres are very much a SFC creation as opposed to Scottish Enterprise. In terms of the ITI’s, there were important lessons for all of us in the innovation space, so I’ve been trying to learn.
“The message I’m getting back is that they didn’t work as well as they might have done and one of the issues seems to have been the treatment of intellectual property.”
In fact IP was critical. SE demanded that IT be owned by the ITI’s, not the companies fostered.
“The CENSIS model is . . . and it’s not lip service; the only place where intellectual property is going to create economic value is in the industrial base. That’s where it should properly reside. Obviously, there are all sorts of rules associated with universities and university funding and there has to be some quid pro quo with them regarding IP.
“At CENSIS, it is policy that we will not own IP.
“As for template arrangements with our university partners, the basic principle is, when you’re creating the foreground IP of a project, there needs to be a clear path to licensing that to the company in a fair and equitable way to enable them to exploit it.
“Also, and this is often overlooked, any background IP that’s needed to effectively exploit the foreground IP also has to be available on those terms.”
The fact that some of the technology development activities in focus under the family of eight innovation centres is common to the failed ITI’s is seen by Reid as good, as it is clear recognition of their potential future value to the Scottish and wider UK economies. That includes energy.
But Reid warns that the academic research base in Scotland is disproportionately heavyweight when compared to the size of the Scottish economy and population.
He warns too that there needs to be much better coupling up of that resource to the industries that matter north of the border . . . much more effective exploitation. He thinks that is the angle that SFC comes from.
So how is Reid going to foster fit-for-purpose R&D that is near market and fit for purpose? He only has a small pot of money
“Out of that £10million, we have to staff up and have, after five years, a model that is sustainable,” he says. Also out of that money we have decided to ring-fence some to spend on an EngD (Engineering Doctorate) programme to be delivered by four partnered universities . . . Edinburgh, Glasgow, Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt.
“The focus will be on SIS. It’s an Eng D so it’s designed to have projects from industry that are therefore real; working on near-term exploitable projects.”
Reid says he has three main sets of tools in the CENSIS bag with which to try and create something relevant.
They comprise:
• Enterprise skills and training;
• Strategic outreach, which is aimed at bringing academics and industry together. A virtual organisation has been established . . . “spokes” designed to reach into the industrial base with a view to working with industrialists to articulate industrial need.
• Funded projects for which about 25% of the original grant is earmarked for this) which fall into two main categories. They are collaborative research where there is a university partner and an industrial partner, and where CENSIS can commission a strategic research project at a university on behalf of a sector.
That’s the toolkit.
According to Reid, the absolute overriding necessity is to be able to articulate industrial need.
“That is surprisingly difficult in the area that we operate. There are some areas like semi-conductors where they publish a set of public domain roadmaps that everybody signs up to in so much detail that equipment and materials companies can go ahead and plan product developments to intersect the roadmap in five to 10 years.
“That’s a level of sophistication that simply doesn’t exist in most industries. And the big challenge that we have at CENSIS is that sensors and imaging systems is such a broad area that we could draw upon a whole host of technologies from simple to gee-whizz exciting quantum technologies and we could be supplying those solutions to the oil & gas industry, subsea engineering, defence, aeronautics, environmental monitoring and others.”
SIS is huge! It’s a tough call for CENSIS! But time will tell whether it will really work, not least in upstream oil & gas. For sure, however, Reid sees subsea as a top bet.
