The Innovation Advisory Service South East (IASSE) is designed to help ambitious companies in the South East to identify how to best manage and exploit their innovative activity. IASSE has a team of highly experienced director level advisors who all have both general commercial and specific sectoral technical expertise. IAS is funded by the South East England Regional Development Agency (SEEDA) and managed by Oxford Innovation along with an experienced partnership of the National Physical Laboratory, and CLIK (the technology transfer arm of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory).
IASSE and Open Innovation
Over the last two years the IASSE has worked with hundreds of companies on Open Innovation and this interaction with businesses of all sizes and across all sectors has helped it champion the practices of Open Innovation and facilitate the processes that underpin it. Successes are built on the transfer of knowledge resulting from these interactions. This case study reflects the success of IASSE facilitation of networks which encourage ‘Open Innovation’.
A large multinational, assessing the benefits of engaging with the IASSE, and an SME, interested in networking, attended IASSE events and independently had conversations with the same IAS advisor. It emerged that the SME was working in an area which is a focus of the multinational. The large company had long realised that any new products entering their pipeline were highly likely to come from external sources, and not their own R&D labs.
The IASSE advisor arranged for the two companies to meet and under a confidentiality agreement they discussed the details of their individual interests. Over a number of months, and following presentations to both boards, the larger partner agreed to purchase a right to investigate further the potential for a product to be developed and finance the associated R&D costs. CEO of the SME commented, “we recognised the potential value of our IP but had neither the resources nor the required knowledge to take it to the next stage. The IAS gave us the confidence to engage with a world-leading company.”
A spokesman for the multinational said, “Independent, quality, advice, and contacts, as provided by the South East’s Innovation Advisory Service, is invaluable in securing relationships that will lead to innovative products reaching the global marketplace.”
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