EEDA - East of England Development Agency

East of England is patent leader in generating ideas

3 September 2010

The East of England is maintaining its reputation for turning ideas into commercial success a report from the East of England Development Agency’s (EEDA) economic intelligence unit published today shows.

Innovation Insight 2010, produced by EEDA’s Insight East team, provides an update to the original baseline report published in March 2009. It shows that the East of England continues to demonstrate some clear signs of continued success in terms of its innovation performance.

The report now ranks the East of England as second only to the South East for generating intellectual property. This is due to a 22 per cent rise in the number of software and non-software licences issued by higher education institutions such as Cranfield University, the University of Cambridge, the University of Hertfordshire and the University of East Anglia. 

In the updated study 13 out of the original 36 measures of innovation performance were compared.  It concluded that for eight of the 13 indicators the region is one of the top three performers in the country. Importantly the East of England has improved its rank across four of the 13 indicators.

The report does warns that weak educational attainment and the relatively small higher educational sector compared to other UK regions is a barrier to economic success.

Internationally the East of England continues to hold its own against similar regions across the world, such as Massachusetts, USA and Chungcheong Region, China.

Glenn Athey, director of Insight East said:

“The East of England has a history of turning ideas into commercial reality as our record in registering new patents and licences shows. This new study, which updates some of the key indicators, concludes that we continue to have strong innovation assets and links, particularly where the private sector is involved.

“Although educational and research performance is holding the region back from achieving its full economic potential the report finds our innovation performance has improved since 2009.

“Maintaining our expertise in future growth sectors, continuing to invest in developing new ideas and improving our workforce’s skills base, will ensure businesses will be able to compete successfully in the global marketplace.”

The report is available at www.insighteast.org.uk

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