Lancaster University - InfoLab21

Background & Context

'InfoLab21 is designed to have a substantial impact on the area, improving skills and creating a cluster of related technology businesses.'

Source: 02 February 2005. Patricia Hewitt to open Lancaster University's InfoLab21. North West Regional Development Agency

Press Release »

The University sought to bring together the disciplines of Communication Systems and Computing in one building and to create a new technology transfer department to work alongside them, the Knowledge Business Centre, in order to encourage the commercial exploitation of research.

A further aim was to attract new high technology businesses to co-locate alongside the world-class academic team, for at the very heart of InfoLab21 is the notion that academics and businesspeople can and will work together for mutual benefit.

The architects (Falkner Browns) have designed a building that is both striking and functional.

The client's mission statement was to design: 'A Centre for excellence in ICT (Information Communications Technology) integrating computing Communications and ISS (Information Systems Services) to provide a world class focus for research, development and exploitation in the North West.' Faulkner Browns Architects.

There was a need for more integration between business and research and the building has enabled this to be achieved.

One of the rationales was the culture change for researchers so that they could think about the practical outcomes of what they do and how they can be realised into a business venture. Another aim was to connect with businesses across the North West, safeguarding sales and jobs and increasing sales and jobs through knowledge and technology transfer. The Knowledge Business Centre acts as a hub for ICT related business across the Northwest, connecting over 600 SMEs through the InfoLab21 Associate Company Scheme.

Enterprise feeds into the curriculum at Lancaster - skills development and expertise of academics are encouraged and students are placed in projects.

What is it?

InfoLab21 is Lancaster University's world-class ICT Centre of Excellence. The enterprise aspects of InfoLab21 build on two decades of working with large companies in the sector - e.g. Cisco, BT, etc. InfoLab21 was built for the purpose of connecting research with local companies.

It is a well-equipped, high-tech environment providing ICT support for businesses, business incubation facilities, ICT education & training, research & development.

What happens in the space?

There are 2 wings to the building - the academic wing - which holds the newly merged (1st August 2010) School of Computing and Communications. This new school is a multimillion pound centre for study and research in the fields of computer science, ICT and communications engineering. Members of the school lead over £10 million worth of research funding and the HighWire Doctoral Training Centre (an Economic and ESRC project). HighWire, taking on 10 PhD postgraduate students each year, works with computing/management school/creative/contemporary arts.

Research focuses on Informatics, Cooperative & Interactive Systems, Software Engineering, Space Plasma Environment & Radio Science, Mobile & Ubiquitous Computing, Signal Processing Systems (SPS) Research, Networked & Distributed Systems.

An entire wing of InfoLab21 is dedicated to the Knowledge Business Centre (KBC), which houses the Business Development Team, business units and facilities for incubation and ICT Focus (the ICT Training Department).

The KBC was specifically developed to facilitate Knowledge Transfer and collaboration; primarily led by its Business Development Team who:

• Act as a link between businesses and InfoLab21 academics
• Facilitate joint research projects and ventures by identifying suitable partnerships, enabling businesses and academics to work side by side to develop new products and processes
• Support new opportunities for academic/business engagement and technology transfer
• Engage with and link regional ICT clusters
• Assist staff and student to create high-tech start-ups and spin-out companies

The support of small businesses is a particular objective of InfoLab21's Business Plan until 2015. The majority of funding for this initiative is from the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), together with funding from the European Regional Development Fund.

Incubator space is promoted through all InfoLab21's marketing communications and online incubation directory sites like Incubation Northwest. The incubator space currently holds 12 companies of varying sizes. InfoLab21 has a close relationship with Lancaster City Council, who manage their own CityLab in Lancaster, which replicates the incubator space of InfoLab21. The council refer companies to InfoLab21 who would benefit from the working alongside researchers in InfoLab21.

The companies have to be in the digital industries to become residents at InfoLab21, but knowledge and technology transfer activities are open to digital and non-digital companies.

The space is involved in a lot of international market surveys - it taps into people with other languages so it is very good for students' (international) project activity. This international aspect provides a different, and positive, perspective on things. There are approximately 100 students involved in this international activity throughout a year.

The support for the incubator/spin-out businesses consists of a team of 7 with 2 account managers to facilitate links with other businesses/academics and manage joint bids, etc. The support team runs cluster groups with Business Link and provides secretariat support.

Once resident in InfoLab21, companies become Associate Companies and join a Northwest network of over 600 companies.

InfoLab21 provides a unique supportive environment for its residents. Important networks are built between clients. For example, Project Meeting Groups internally share best practice and a logo design was completed for one company by another. Some companies consist of one person and there may have been career changes later in life so it is very useful to have that network support.

InfoLab21 Business Service Portfolio

The InfoLab21 Strategic Innovation Support Programme (ISIS) provides Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the North West with free 'transformational ICT'. This involves ICT advice and implementation that changes the way a business operates, which means making changes to the organisation and business processes resulting in a major improvement that could not happen without the use of ICT. ISIS is the first project of its kind in the UK and is delivered under the Government's Solutions for Business portfolio. Support is part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and delivered by the Graduate and Student Academies in the KBC. The graduates working in the Academy, which there are currently 12 are sponsored by 18 month internships working under the supervision of Technical Officers, in addition to providing a delivery capability, the diversity of work experience also considerably strengthens their CVs.

InfoLab21 Strategic Innovation Exploitation Programme (ISTEP)

ISTEP enables North West Digital and Creative businesses to collaborate with InfoLab21's 270+ strong research community to develop new high value products and processes. Support is fully funded and can include specialist consultancy, short-term projects, workshops and events. Past work includes developments in mobile applications, media streaming, wearable computing, wireless technology, speech analysis tools and data mining. Support is part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and delivered under the 'Innovation, Advice and Guidance' product, part of the Government's Solutions for Business portfolio.

The InfoLab21 Student Academy aims to provide businesses with access to InfoLab21's extensive knowledge and skills base to develop their ICT capabilities and complete a project that they would not otherwise have had the resources to deliver. It also creates opportunities for InfoLab21's pool of full and part-time PhD students, Masters students and undergraduates to work with businesses and develop their work-based skills.

The Student Academy can arrange academic projects with undergraduates and postgraduates with a range of skills. It can also, where funding is available, employ a student to work on a short-term basis for a company as either a placement or a University-based project. Projects can vary in length from a few weeks to several months based on the need of the business and the student's availability.

The Academy can also provide support for Research & Development (R&D) activity and work that may be beyond the scope of the company, it can also be beneficial in that it encourages the building of relationships between businesses and students with the obvious bonus of potential employment on graduation.

In the first year of the MRes (Master of Research) there is an integral project with companies and the companies contribute to marks. The 2nd year of a PhD incorporates the 'Ideas Factory' where businesses work with the post-graduate students.

A sizeable proportion of the staff at InfoLab21 have a background in industry and there is much collaborative research work with industry. Lancaster University believes in the importance of being both research and business facing, and the need to prove impact. This results in a very dynamic environment.