A Network of Networks: The Case of the UK Technology Strategy Board

Abstract

In this chapter we describe how through the work of Technology Strategy Board, the UK’s innovation agency, the UK Government’s intervention has delivered a manifestation of the innovation quadruple helix in facilitating a Web platform that provides linkages between academia, business, and government departments. This is the story of a journey where the goal was to establish an interactive, open innovation network of networks, and where the start-point was a collection of siloed communities funded by the UK Government to represent a wide range of technologies and sectors. Originally, these communities were set up as pillars of excellence with a view to creating collaboration spaces for academics to share knowledge within their disciplines, but as time has progressed, stimulated by the need to identify routes to exploit this knowledge, businesses and government departments were encouraged to join. We describe why we embarked on this journey, what was found at the start-point in these silos of excellence, and the challenges we faced in designing and developing the network of networks. Finally, we describe how, over the last 2 years, we have implemented an interactive, open innovation, challenge-led Web platform, inclusive of all who want to play.