Catapult is a Technology Strategy Board programme

Connected Digital Economy CatapultThe compelling case

Modern Universities Research Group

28 September 2012

The VisionTo make the UK the best place in the world to develop and launch digitally-enabled systems, services and products

Why? To unlock the digital economy’s massive economic potential and support its rapid commercialisation by UK plc.

How? The Catapult will achieve this in a single physical centre forcing multi-disciplinarity working and by• being highly networked, collaborative and business led• developing world-class R&D&I expertise and facilitiesand above all, by bringing together large and small businesses, research organisations, and the public sectorin ways that haven’t happened before.

The Global relevanceDigital technologies are transforming most sectors of the economy at an accelerating rate.

The global digital markets are massive and growing• mobile transactions $241b (2011) → $1tn (2015) 43% growth pa• spend on “cloud” $70b (2010) → $180bn (2015) 21% growth pa• creative, digital & IT revenues: exceed $3tn

(2013)

The digital sector is transforming other sectors• 75% value from the internet is from traditional sectors• 15-20% UK services (70% of economy) will be soon digital• 2.4 jobs are created for every job displaced

The UK situationThe UK is ideally placed to profit from investment in the Catapult to support innovation in the digital economy.

UK position: leading the adoption of digital technologies• UK internet economy is the largest per capita• 13 creative sectors employ 1.3mn and export £17.3bn

UK capability: a leading developer of digital technologies• Deep strength in creative, analytics, comms, services, ..• Outstanding industrial developers & academic centres

UK reputation: a natural global centre of digital technologies• Increasingly, global companies are locating R&D here• UK is already seen as world-leading in many digital sectors• UK is home to existing world-class collaborative clusters

Wide-ranging consultationOur dialogue with the community includes• In-depth interview with 60+ orgs (2011)• Meetings with large companies representing over $1tn• 11 round tables and several larger meetings• 280 responses to our questionnaire (2012)

This has resulted in• >80 formal requests to form “deep engagements”• Remarkable consensus on the Catapult’s

- benefit to the UK innovation environment- scope of operations and remit

Why a centre is requiredThe consensus community feedback is that

The Catapult must be:• A physical, permanent centre• Fully engaged with users & developers• A catalyst for innovation by coordinating demand and supply

The Catapult must help the community by:• Helping define industry-wide strategic innovation needs• Coordinating innovation demand and supply (cross-sectorally)• Steering joint development of industry-wide platforms• Giving the community access to shared expertise and facilities• Showcasing UK leading-edge innovations to global markets

Main market opportunities addressedIn-depth consultation has identified 3 areas where the community expects the Catapult to add most value.

Media and ContentSupporting the development of leading-edge platforms and applications with SMEs and large companies

Digital adoption across all services sectorsTransferring expertise and models from sectors with high digital penetration (eg media) to newer sectors (eg education) and developing solutions to sector-level problems

Merging of physical and virtual worldsSupporting the development of “platform-level” solutions and making test beds and tools available to SMEs and large companies to develop applications

Core R&D and Innovation capabilitiesCatapult world-class expertise in these areas will help its communities explore and develop massive opportunities in each of the market areas identified.

“Big Data”There is limited ability to identify, access, interrogate, manipulate and re-use the vast data resources available via the internet

User centricityThere is weak understanding of user needs/expectations which are typically not embedded into all elements of system design inhibiting take-up & usability

Trusted internetPoor user identification and authentication, privacy, trust and security on the internet is inhibiting its adoption in a wide range of markets and applications

Infrastructure and mobileThe nature of emerging internet infrastructure is poorly understood yet its impact upon business models and markets will befundamental and extreme

Collaboration model for R&D&IThere will always be a much larger R&D and Innovation capacity hosted by UK partners than the Catapult itself. It is therefore vital that this community is happy to collaborate with the Catapult via • seconding staff• making expertise, IP and facilities available (on agreed terms)• forming consortia to access external grant funding (EC, TSB, ...)

so that each project and core capability is highly collaborative between many partners.

Further, to support “pathways to commercialisation”, the Catapult and this R&D&I community must support• where appropriate, developing emerging standards• Spin-out of Catapult ideas / opportunities• SME engagement

Catapult long term capabilities

Where available, strategic partners with relevant facilities and capabilities will be asked to make them open to others to access.Where not available, the Catapult will develop these assets to support UK innovation.Mid-term, this cube has a budget of £27million p.a.

Merging v

irtual

&

physi

cal w

orlds

Driving d

igital

servi

ces

ac

ross

secto

rs

New va

lue from

co

ntent &

med

ia

“Big data” User centricity & experience Trusted internet Infrastructure & mobile

Pilot, demo’ & test beds Strategic applied R&D

Ecosystem build and support

Closeness to market

CDE Catapult areas of expertise

Major markets and sectors

The Catapult has 3 categories of “space”.2nd In-house R&D space,

supported facilities and collaborations

1st Catapult front office plus SME advisors/networks

G “Public” space for exhibitions, teaching, etc creating SME awareness and creating new “supply chains” and communities

Open access culture

The allocation of space to be determined by Catapult priorities & some of these facilities will be delivered by partners

Catapult R&D teams

IP Advisorse.g. Catapultfront office Investor clubs

“Flat” teaching &exhibition space

Meeting rooms

Raised lecture theatreVideowalls

Exhibition space

Reception

Collaboration space

R&D grant finders

Application of expertise

Tran

spor

t

Citie

s

Sate

llite A

pps Healthcare

Sustainability

Other CatapultsCDE Catapult partners, networks, SMEs …

CDE Catapult

Rest of the World

Collaborating on sector specific applications

R&D partnerships & projects building core distinctive pre-commercial capabilities

Supporting commercialisation in the community

Building capabilities and activitiesThe Catapult delivery team is developing provisional programmes for its first year including a range of projects to deliver its vision.

Each project must build Catapult capabilities which are:• valuable beyond the life of each project• synergistic with the Catapult’s emerging capabilities• platforms for collaborating and sharing with third parties

Together the Catapult’s core capabilities/facilities must support:• wide-ranging collaborations• varied & novel innovation communities and value chains• pathways for the communities to commercialise innovation

Connected Digital Economy CatapultOpening in 2013 and configured to: operate as a not-for-profit independent company become a world-class centre of applied R&D support the journey “research” “application” collaborate widely and openly support innovation & business in many “sectors” build communities within and between sectors provide test-beds, expertise and networks to SMEs help UK be the place to innovate

ConclusionThe Catapult will have massive economic and social impact on the UK by allowing its companies to fully exploit the opportunities which increased “digitalisation” is bringing to almost every sector of the economy.

This view is reinforced by the very significant buy-in from large companies and SMEs from all relevant sectors and from universities across the UK who hope to collaborate and coordinate with the Catapult.

Questions and comments?

Many thanks ...

and please follow-up with thoughts or questions to

Peter.Reid@TSB.gov.uk