The Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, has opened a study on the role of science, technology, engineering & maths (STEM) in services sector innovation and has issued a ‘call for evidence’ to solicit views on some key questions. R&D Society members and contacts are encouraged to respond.
Services account for approximately 70% of the UK economy and include some of the country’s most innovative and highest performing sectors – financial services, business support services, retail and the creative industries among them. Although there is growing recognition of the importance of innovation in services, understanding of the role of STEM and other related disciplines in services sector innovation remains poor.
This policy study will consider evidence of interactions between STEM and services organisations with a focus on the nature, extent and role of these engagements in services sector innovation processes. The Royal Society is interested in areas of success, areas of current weakness and ‘fertile areas’ of the UK services economy, in which innovative capabilities could be scaled up or accelerated with the help of STEM.
The main objective is to develop policy recommendations on ways to enhance the contribution of STEM to services sector innovation.
Separate “calls for evidence” have been produced for firms (services organisations and trade bodies (from the private, public or voluntary sector)) and academics (research and academic institutions). These request answers to specific questions by email to nicola.berkley@royalsociety.org by 18 August 2008. You are encouraged to respond. You do not need to answer all the questions – you may answer as many or as few as you are willing or able to do. Indeed, if there are other important issues not addressed by the call for evidence, the Royal Society would be grateful to have them pointed out.
For firms, the most important questions are as follows – see the “call for evidence for firms (pdf file)” for details of all of them:
3. At which point(s) in your organisation’s value chain does STEM contribute to innovation? How does the STEM input at this/these point/s impact innovation in your organisation? If possible, please describe the importance of the contribution of STEM in comparison to other factors in innovation in your organisation.
4. What mechanisms does your organisation use to support engagement with the STEM community in universities and research institutes? (For example journals, industry-university consortia, conferences, collaborative research programmes supported by the Research Councils).
Do your organisation’s innovation needs steer research activity in academia? If yes, how is academic research changing in response to these needs?
Has engagement with the universities helped to shape the academic curriculum?
5. Please tell us about scientifically trained people employed in your organisation. Among other things we are interested in:
Numbers/proportions of employees who are STEM graduates or scientifically trainedT
The kinds of roles they occupy and how this has changed in the last five to ten years
Whether STEM graduates/postgraduates are meeting your requirements
Whether you expect your organisation’s STEM skills needs to change (qualitatively or quantitatively) in the next five to ten years (and if so, why)
6. Please tell us about the influence of service users or customers on innovation in your organisation. Among other things we are interested in:
Whether and how you involve users/customers in your innovation processes
How STEM can help your organisation to understand consumer needs and their responses to service innovations
Whether developments in STEM (e.g. ICT) are driving customer demand for, and consumption of, innovative services
7. We are interested in ‘fertile areas’ of the service economy in which the UK could develop, accelerate or scale-up innovative service capabilities. Please describe two or three important business opportunities or strategic challenges faced by your organisation that would require new or different offerings from the STEM community. If appropriate, please expand on any developments relating to innovative capabilities in the following areas (or any others):
Data – e.g. information management, data security, data analysis, data modelling and visualisation and supply chain logistics.
The interface between people and services – e.g. human responses and interactions with services and systems.
People and skills – the development and supply of appropriately skilled and entrepreneurial individuals.
9. What are the main barriers to further links between your organisation and the STEM community?
An electronic version of the call for evidence and more information can be found at: www.royalsociety.org/servicesinnovation The closing date for submissions is 18 August 2008 by email to nicola.berkley@royalsociety.org . The R&D Society office would welcome being copied in on submissions at rdsociety@royalsociety.org
