Technology Strategy Board

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.
Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is a public body operating at arm's length from the Government reporting to the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS).

[edit] History

The Technology Strategy Board has its roots as an advisory body within the former Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), before becoming an independent body in July 2007 after the reorganisation of the DTI into the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) under Brown's government. The original DTI organisation had its roots in the Innovation Review published by the DTI in December 2003. This reconfigured the major funding mechanism as the Collaborative Research & Development Technology Programme, transformed the pre-existing Faraday Partnerships into Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, renamed the Teaching Company Scheme as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and set up an Advisory Board made up of 12 people from business, venture capital and regional government. These changes all took place in 2004 - with the Advisory Board being appointed in October of that year. This set up lasted until the 2006 Budget when Gordon Brown announced the intention to set up the Technology Strategy Board as a "non-departmental public body" operating at "arm's length" from Government. This effectively moved the body out of London and it was decided to locate it in Swindon. One consequence of this is that the personnel were totally refreshed, and the decision was made to recruit primarily those with business experience.

[edit] Programmes

The Technology Strategy Board runs the Collaborative Research and Development (CR&D), Knowledge Transfer Networks (KTN) and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) programmes. Most recently it has developed the Innovation Platforms - programmes which harness the activities Government Departments use to address societal challenges to stimulate innovative solutions within UK businesses.