International programmes

Thinking and acting globally  

In a century of globalization, many of the greatest business opportunities will be international.  Successful UK companies must take into account the global picture.  Increasingly global trends and technical developments affect the competitiveness of UK businesses. 

Newly, and rapidly developing economies are both a threat to the UK economy, and a huge market opportunity.  The most successful UK businesses and innovations are those with a global, rather than a local market.

To support UK business we currently:

• provide support for UK business involvement in Eureka and Eurostars,
• provide advice through the FP7UK website (hyperlink) and a network of National Contact Points to help UK companies participate in the European Framework programme,
• provide support for some specific EU activities.

International activities are a developing area for the Technology Strategy Board.  We are currently looking at: 

• integrating international thinking into all of our activities.  In particular strengthening the international role of the Knowledge Transfer Networks and looking at providing support for international Knowledge Transfer Partnerships.
  
  
• supporting innovative international initiatives.  We are actively considering new ways of internationalising UK innovation, for example collaborative projects involving governments, researchers and multi-national businesses from more than one country together addressing combined larger markets or global challenges.
  
  
• helping businesses to access global research resources by ensuring that UK businesses have the latest knowledge about research and creativity taking place abroad.  
  
  
• benchmarking performance.  We will benchmark both the performance of the UK against other countries and also benchmark the Technology Strategy Board against other similar organisations globally to assess performance and to share best practice.
  
  
• promoting the UK innovation message globally.  Working with our international partners, including UKTI, the British Council, British embassies abroad, and the European Commission to enhance international understanding of the UK's innovative capacity and potential and to promote the UK as a global innovation centre of excellence.
  
  
• helping to build UK capability.  Working with partners to ensure that as much as possible of global research is located within the UK, focusing on our core intellectual and commercial strengths. The stronger the UK's reputation for academic-business partnership, the more research resources will flow into the UK. Our strength is already evidenced by the very high share of UK research funded from abroad.