"Innovation Triangle" Links Design, Technology & Business

By Ray Cooling, London Press Service

A REMARKABLE centre to address the challenges of how to drive future innovation and prosper from it is to be created in the United Kingdom. It is said to represent the only big partnership in the UK between the art and design sector and a leading university.

The Royal College of Art (RCA) and Imperial College London (ICL) have announced a strategic partnership with the construction of a world-class multidisciplinary base called Design-London at RCA-Imperial.

The purpose of the 5.8 million pounds centre is to bring together the disciplines of design, engineering, technology and business to deal with new ideas across many fields.

Design-London at RCA-Imperial will create an "innovation triangle" between design (represented by the Royal College of Art), engineering and technology (represented by Imperial's Faculty of Engineering), and the business of innovation (represented by ICL's Tanaka Business School).

Nick Leon has recently been appointed the director of Design-London. "Changing the way that businesses bring ideas to market is the vision behind the new project," he said. He joins it from the Tanaka Business School of Imperial College London (ICL) where he is a visiting fellow and teaches on innovation studies.

He continued: "Successful innovation demands a systemic not a component approach to designing new products and services. Edison didn't just patent a light bulb - he delivered an entire new system that changed our world. He was an engineer, a master systems thinker, conceptualiser and entrepreneur. Design-London may not find the next Edison, but we can stir together those same domains of expertise in multidisciplinary teams.

"Our aim is to disseminate new practice in innovation by creating new teaching programmes, conducting top-level research, incubating new business ideas and pioneering the next generation of innovation technology," he added.

Leon began his career as an industrial designer at IBM, moving from designing products then services, through to developing entire new businesses in his role as business development director for IBM's Global Services division in Europe.

His work in the Tanaka Business School addresses the impact of information and communications technology on the social and economic vitality of cities.

Recent projects include advising the Barcelona city government on creating an international district for innovation; advising CLM, the London 2012 Olympics delivery partner, and research for Cloud Networks, that implemented the newly launched WiFi networks for Canary Wharf and the City of London.

Design-London has also appointed Professor Bruce Tether as director of Research. He joins the project from Manchester Business School where he was Professor of Innovation Management & Strategy.

Welcoming his appointment, Nick Leon said: "Bruce is an expert in systems of innovation and his expertise will enable Design-London to research the new business models that are needed."

Within Design-London's "innovation triangle", teaching will promote knowledge interchange between MA, MEng and MBA students from the RCA and Imperial College. Research will explore how design can be more effectively integrated with business and technology to create world-beating products and services

Entrepreneurial graduates from RCA and ICL will be given the opportunity to develop new ideas in the "Incubator", a dynamic, multi-disciplinary environment for business development that will support unique or unexpected collaborations between different disciplines, organisations and places.

Business partners of RCA and ICL will be able to build innovation capacity via simulation exercises, digital tools and facilitation in the "Simulator".

Design-London is to cost 5.8 million pounds, of which 3.8 million has been provided as seed funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) from 2007-2010. In addition, the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts (Nesta) is to provide 900,000 pounds over a three-year period to fund the Incubator element of the project.

The remainder of the funding is being sourced from within the RCA and ICL. It is a core objective of the project to move to self-sustaining mode at the end of the three years. The London Development Agency has endorsed the initiative and is working with other partners in London, including the Design Council, to ensure the centre is incorporated into a wider strategy that capitalises on design strengths to drive innovation across London businesses.

HEFCE chief executive Professor David Eastwood said: "This is an exciting partnership, in that Design-London addresses many of HEFCE's strategic priorities, including the delivery of high-quality learning experiences to meet the needs of the economy and society and the engagement between higher education institutions and businesses. It also promises to contribute to UK economic success amid intensified global competition."

The new centre builds on a strong track record of very successful collaboration between near neighbours RCA and Imperial that dates from more than 25 years ago to the creation of a joint master's degree course in industrial design engineering. This programme will sit at the heart of Design-London.

It is anticipated that the project will also network with other existing teaching programmes and research centres within the two institutions, making new connections and building on previous investment in design, engineering and business expertise to achieve a new level of multidisciplinary engagement.

Sir Christopher Frayling, Rector of the Royal College of Art, said: "This is a really important stage of development for the RCA. It takes our link in innovation and design to a new plateau, a new prominence, and represents the only big partnership in the UK between the art and design sector and a leading Russell Group university. Building on the triangle of design, technology and business at this high level is good for us and, in time, will be good, no doubt, for the British economy."

Sir Richard Sykes, Rector of Imperial College London, said: "Innovation is an important part of what we do at Imperial and we are constantly exploring new ways of turning exciting ideas into reality, encouraged greatly by the presence of an integrated business school. Our previous collaborations with the RCA have sparked some imaginative problem-solving, so I am delighted that this partnership provides further opportunities for us all to work together to tackle design challenges in a creative and dynamic multidisciplinary environment."

Contact:

Aine Duffy
Royal College of Art
Kensington Gore, London, United Kingdom, SW7 2EU
Phone: +44 20 7590 4444
Fax: +44 20 7590 4500
E-mail: aine.duffy@rca.ac.uk
Web: www.rca.ac.uk