David Kingham

The chief operating officer of Oxford Innovation speaks with Amy Duff

According to data from the 2007 edition of The Economist Pocket World in Figures, the UK sits in 16th place on its innovation index (the US tops the list). The DTI says it is trying to stimulate a significant increase in innovation throughout the economy. But, as Dr David Kingham, chief operating officer at Oxford Innovation, notes: "The government is doing a lot. But there is still quite a big gap between what we do in the UK compared to what they do in the US."

Early stage US businesses, for example, get access to government funding for R&D through its much lauded Small Business Innovation Research Programme, which was designed to encourage small businesses to explore their technological potential and stimulate the US economy. Kingham says: "I think there's a lot to learn. The UK is a lot better than the rest of Europe, but it's very important that we don't get submerged by too much European bureaucracy."

Oxford Innovation started in 1991 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the charity, the Oxford Trust, which was originally established to encourage the study and application of science and technology and to try and persuade the University of Oxford and other research institutes in the area to be more relevant to their local economy. Although the business is still part owned by the charity, Kingham says Oxford Innovation became a more commercial, for-profit organisation after a management buyout in 2001.
It currently manages 13 innovation centres, which house entrepreneurial businesses across a range of knowledge, technology or creative sectors. It provides key services (including funding initiatives and office space) to start-ups as well as to government bodies that promote enterprise.

An example is the Silverstone Innovation Centre, which Oxford Innovation manages for the East Midlands Development Agency and British Racing Drivers' Club. The idea, says Kingham, was to have flexible premises for start-ups at the home of the UK motor sport industry. "Sometimes we do ourselves down in misunderstanding our engineering and entrepreneurial strengths," he comments. "And the motor sport industry is a wonderful example of British entrepreneurship and engineering at its best. Fantastic things can happen in that industry with start-ups."

Preston Racing, for instance, moved to the Silverstone centre to plan its entry into Formula One. Why? "Because there's a thriving cluster of high-performance motor sport companies; there's a lot of inter-connection that makes things possible," says Kingham. "The guys have ended up working for a new Formula One team, Super Aguri, and have got a car on the grid," he says.

Kingham reckons investment in innovation centres by the RDAs is a bold step in the right direction. "It's a sensible, well-targeted investment, which plays to local strengths," he says. But he'd like to see central government taking a more proactive role in helping fledgling, innovative firms. "There's this attitude in government that they shouldn't intervene in what they call a market failure. That approach is so old-fashioned. I don't think the government has seriously woken up to the fact that it has to help our globally competitive businesses as much as it can."

www.oxin.co.uk