Where industry representatives always pressure for more applied
science, Mr. Borysiewicz (currently Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Cambridge and previously head of the UK's Medical
Research Council) regards the fundamental research done now simply
as the applied research done in the future. Mr. Borysiewicz was the
key note speaker at LERU's 10th Anniversary
conference:
"Economic growth is the priority of every European government,
and it can't come soon enough. How can universities help?
Europe's research universities are already making a huge economic
contribution: that much is obvious. We educate the future
workforce, we perform research which governments, business and
industry commission through research contracts, and we make
discoveries and inventions which, formalised in recent years as
'technology transfer', are put directly to work by the private
sector to generate economic return."
The Cambridge miracle
"An example from my university: in 1960, a pair of
Cambridge graduates formed a company called Cambridge Consultants,
starting the development of a cluster of high-tech companies around
the University. This was later described as 'the Cambridge
Phenomenon': the process by which entrepreneurial scientists
created companies to take advantage of the proximity to a great
research university - and, as the cluster grew, to other companies
doing similar things. Around the city we now have over 1,400
high-tech and bio-tech companies, from tiny recent 'spin-outs' from
university laboratories to arms of multinational companies like
Microsoft. Eleven companies which started in the Cambridge
cluster are now valued at over 1 billion euro - including Autonomy
whose business software is in use in every industry, and ARM, whose
microchips are in your mobile phone, your car and your TV."
"What is less obvious - indeed counter-intuitive - is that
universities' contribution to the economy is so effective precisely
because it is not our primary objective. Economic
productivity is a by-product of the teaching and research that we
perform for other reasons. If it were turned into a primary
objective - if universities became the Research and Development
branch of Big Industry - then our distinctive contribution would be
lost. The 'Cambridge Phenomenon' was unplanned,
and in many ways unexpected: it is hard to imagine that it would
have been more successful if the University had deliberately set
out to create that economic effect. "
New target molecule
"One reason for this is that the discoveries that make the
biggest contribution economically tend to result from blue-skies,
fundamental research, not applied, 'near-market' research. If
a pharmaceutical company sets universities the task of improving
the efficiency of a particular drug, for example, then the result
will be economically and societally useful, but limited and maybe
more effectively done within the company. However, a more
fundamental question such as identifying a new target molecule is
far better sited in a large multidisciplinary research intensive
University."
"In such a circumstance, a university researcher primarily sets
out, from curiosity, to discover how a fundamental biological
process works, and the results can be unlimited - and
transformative. This is what Francis Crick and James Watson
did in Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratories in 1952: their discovery
of the structure of DNA has had an effect on all our lives (and, as
an example of economic benefit as a by-product, has generated
uncountable billions of euro)."
Not-yet-applied
"The two examples are of course connected: today's
pharmaceutical research relies on yesterday's 'blue skies'
research. Although the pipeline from one to the other is long
(studies in some fields have suggested as long as 17 years) it is
evident that the pipeline must not be broken - the basic research
we do now will be applied by our successors in the years to
come. We must not leave the cupboard bare for them.
George Porter - a former President of the Royal Society, the UK's
science academy - went further, insisting that fundamental research
and applied research are at heart the same thing: 'there are
two types of research: applied, and not-yet-applied'."
"Europe is fortunate to have strong, research-intensive
universities which can step up to meet these challenges. Many
of them are members of the League of European Research Universities
(LERU) which is asking, at its 10th Anniversary Conference this
year, what the research university of the future will look
like. It is a timely question, since the European Union is
completing the design of its next research funding framework,
Horizon 2020 - a programme that will see more than 80 billion euro
over 7 years directed at research and innovation in Europe.
These large sums have the ability to shape how Europe's
universities develop."
The last institution to integrate knowlegde
"Should our universities focus only on fundamental, blue-skies
research, and leave 'applied' research and innovation to research
institutes, and private-sector R&D labs? The example of
the Cambridge Phenomenon argues strongly against this: what
the University of Cambridge can offer to the companies in the
cluster is access to an entire spectrum of research from
fundamental to applied, with the support services (technology
transfer offices, science parks and incubators, seed funding) that
go with it. Separating "applied" from "not-yet-applied" would
certainly not be wise, and may not even be possible."
"It is important, then, that universities are the location for
research of all kinds - not least because universities are the last
institutions able to integrate knowledge from many different
sources and many different disciplines. Universities can
identify interesting developments in unexpected places and combine
them to produce practical solutions to big problems."
Onerous resposibilities
"We can do this because of our academic breadth, because we are
autonomous, and because we give freedom to our individual
researchers to follow promising scents. Although our
physicists and biotechnologists might invent a new gadget with the
potential for financial profit, our arts and humanities faculties -
sociologists, economists, lawyers - can transform that potential
into sustainable socio-economic benefit. As integrators, we
can match research funding to societal problems."
"In designing Horizon2020, then, the EU should recognise that it
is university research, both applied and "not yet applied", that
produces the sustainable, long-term growth that Europe desperately
needs. "
"It is worth asking why universities want these onerous
responsibilities. The answer lies in our mission: to serve
society. If ever there was a time when academia was in
contrast to the 'real world', that time is surely over.
Serving society is at the core of what we do. By pursuing
research in all disciplines and at all points in the spectrum, from
the most direct form of applied innovation to the most fundamental
inquiry into the way the world works, Europe's universities hold
the key to growth in our economies - and our societies."
LERU ahead
The League of European Research Universities (LERU) is an
association of 21 leading research-intensive universities that
share the values of high-quality teaching within an environment of
internationally competitive research. Founded in 2002, LERU
advocates education through an awareness of the frontiers of human
understanding; the creation of new knowledge through basic
research, which is the ultimate source of innovation in society;
and the promotion of research across a broad front in partnership
with industry and society at large.