The University of Strathclyde has hosted the Annual Meeting of CESAER, the European association of advanced engineering universities, featuring over 50 institutions.
The theme of this year’s meeting was Innovation Districts – from Deep Tech and Entrepreneurship to Inclusive Innovation and featured workshops on providing inclusive pathways to bring underrepresented groups into innovation and entrepreneurship careers.
A leadership track also brought senior leaders from across the CESAER members to the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland and there was a High Level Conference on Innovation Districts and Regional Development.
Senior leaders
The event attracted the participation of senior leaders from the UK and the European Commission, including the President of the European Innovation Council Michiel Scheffer, the Deputy Director General for Research and Innovation, Signe Ratso, and the UK Chief Scientist for Science Innovation and Technology, Professor Chris Johnson.
Also speaking was Professor Manuel Heitor whose report Align, Act, Accelerate was launched during the conference by the European Commission. This report recommends the urgent need for a European Industrial Competitiveness Council, as well as one on Social Challenges – highlighting that the approaches taken by Strathclyde are likely to be front and centre of the next Horizon programme.
Pivotal role
The concept of innovation districts is increasingly central to city redevelopment, research impact, entrepreneurship promotion, and local economic growth – with universities playing a pivotal role by offering opportunities for a broad range of stakeholders to access talent and research expertise and infrastructure.
Strathclyde’s Professor Tim Bedford, Associate Principal of Research and Knowledge Exchange, serves as two Vice Presidents of CESAER, where he helps to steer the activities and strategy of the Association with the Board and the Secretariat. Professor Bedford is also co-chair of CESAER’s Task Force Innovation.
Innovation ecosystems
For over 10 years, the CESAER Task Force Innovation has explored how universities of science and technology engage with and shape innovation ecosystems. This work has contributed to the integration of ecosystem funding into Pillar 3 of Horizon Europe.
Strathclyde’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Jim McDonald previously served a two-year term as President of CESAER between January 2018 and December 2020. Under his leadership, CESAER embarked upon an ambitious two-year plan to accelerate the Association’s development, engagement with external bodies and collaboration between Members.
Professor Bedford said:
“We were delighted to host the annual meeting of CESAER, an association that provides a strong and united voice for universities of science and technology in Europe.”
“Strathclyde was the perfect venue for this year’s meeting theme, given our leading role in two innovation districts – Glasgow City Innovation District (GCID), Scotland’s first innovation district, and the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland (AMIDS), at Inchinnan.
“Our sector-leading approach to partnership working with business, industry, government and the third sector demonstrates the central role that universities can play in coordinating and catalysing collaboration and investment in a city that generates economic growth and social impact.”
Fastest growing
GCID – the result of a successful partnership between Strathclyde, Glasgow City Council, Scottish Enterprise, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurial Scotland – is home to over 1,600 businesses. It forms part of the city’s thriving tech and innovation ecosystem that is one of the fastest growing, with more than 950 startups and scale ups, representing a collective enterprise value of £4.1 billion.
AMIDS is a hub for Scotland’s manufacturing and life sciences sectors where Strathclyde operates the National Manufacturing Innovation Centre Scotland, a group of specialist R&D centres, that are helping manufacturing, engineering and associated tech businesses of all sizes, to thrive by accelerating productivity, embracing new digital technologies and achieving net-zero targets.
CESAER is a formal stakeholder partner of the European Research Area and one of the principal bodies that works with the European Commission to develop EU framework programmes for research and innovation.