The UK Regional Innovation
Network (RINET) was established following two successful
meetings held at Birkbeck, University of London in 2000 and the Welsh
Development Agency in 2001. At the Birkbeck meeting Lord Sainsbury,
Minister for Science and Technology, expressed his support for a UK
Regional Innovation Network to promote innovation in the regions.
The network is financed by the Department of Trade and Industry on a
matched funding basis.
Objectives
The UK RINET brings together innovation managers from the
English, Scottish and Welsh Development Agencies and IRTU in Northern
Ireland, industrialists, senior innovation/business support agency
staff, policy makers and researchers to:
Successful transfer of best practice is an important
objective of the network. In addition, the network aims to
develop new and improved policy initiatives based on cross-regional and
cross-organisational learning. By setting up an interactive
dialogue between policy makers, innovation professionals, researchers
and industrialists, the network provides an arena in which the
different expertise of these groups can be brought to bear on the
question of not just spreading best practice, but of finding new and
improved ways of catalysing innovation and knowledge/technology
transfer at regional level. While the focus of the RINET is on
innovation, the network aims to establish links with existing regional
networks to discuss the role of innovation in regional economic
development and to facilitate coordination between innovation
policy/actions and regional economic development policy/actions.
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Organization and Coordination
Neville Reyner CBE, Deputy Chair of
the East of England Development Agency, is the Chair of the Innovation
Operational Group and the Chair of the Steering Committee of the RINET
whose membership includes representatives from DTI, academia, the
European Commission and industry.
The work of the RINET is coordinated
from Birkbeck’s School of Management and Organizational Psychology by Professor
Jonathan Michie, Professor
Christine Oughton and Marion Frenz.
IRE Conference, International Links and RINET
Conference 19th June 2002: A
number of international organisations have expressed their desire to
network with their UK colleagues to mutual advantage. To encourage
international links the June conference of
the RINET was held back-to-back with the 3rd
Innovating Regions in Europe Annual Conference (17th-18th
June 2002) on Wednesday 19th June 2002 in Stratford Upon
Avon.
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Further details and registration
forms can be obtained from:
