Manchester Institute of Innovation Research

Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR) [1] is a research institute based in Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester, UK. MIoIR is a centre of excellence in the fields of innovation studies, technology management and innovation management, science policy, technology policy, innovation policy and regional innovation, the study of emerging technologies (or em tech), responsible research and innovation, and research into socio-technical transitions with a focus on sustainability and digital transitions. MIoIR has also been known for research on service innovation and in particular the definition and early exploration of the concept of knowledge-intensive business services, through the work of scholars such as Ian Miles[2] and Bruce Tether.

The Institute consists of a group of internationally renowned scholars and experts,[3] with more than 50 full members, approximately 30 PhD researchers, and a range of associated academics. Since the 1970s the institute and its predecessor bodies have contributed to the national and international debate about science policy and innovation (as noted in connection with UK debates by Agar[4]) and helped develop the field of research evaluation[5] and formulating the now widely used concept of behavioural additionality.[6]

Image of Alliance Manchester Business School.
Alliance Manchester Business School building, home of MIoIR.

The Institute is currently housed in the newly refurbished Alliance Manchester Business School building on the corner of Oxford Road and Booth Street West, Manchester. For many of its earlier years it was based with the now-demolished Mathematics Tower of the University of Manchester.[citation needed]

A number of the current members of MIoIR are also co-investigators of, or otherwise affiliated with, the ESRC-funded Productivity Institute,[7] a national virtual institute with its headquarters at Manchester.

History

MIoIR has a history dating back to the 1960s, and the establishment of the Department of Liberal Studies in Science[8] at the Victoria University of Manchester (VUM). The department was established in 1967 as part of a wave of science studies centres in the UK and North America established in the late 1960s and 1970s. As with many of these centres it was initially created in order to liberalise degree level science education and produce graduates literate both in a science field and in the history, philosophy, politics and economics of science who would, it was supposed, be better able to compete for top jobs in industry and government with graduates from humanities and social sciences programmes.[9] The department eventually spawned two major research and teaching centres, the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM) and PREST (Policy Research in Engineering, Science and Technology)[10] which evolved into the present-day Manchester Institute of Innovation Research in 2004, with the merger of the Victoria University with UMIST. The two centres continue to collaborate in the present, and host an annual public lecture in honour of the founding professor of Liberal Studies in Science, Frederick Raphael Jevons.[11]

On its creation MIoIR also incorporated the remaining staff of the joint UMIST-VUM ESRC funded Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition (CRIC), a ten year collaborative research centre formed by Professors from PREST and UMIST that ran to September 2001.[12]

Notable members and graduates

Frank Geels (currently Eddie Davies Professor of Sustainability Transitions at MIoIR, highly cited scholar)[13]

Luke Georghiou (former director, current member, Vice-President of the University of Manchester)

Michael Gibbons (scientist) (former professor, co-author of The New Production of Knowledge (1994), former secretary general[14] of the Association of Commonwealth Universities)

Frederick Jevons (founding professor, later vice-chancellor of Deakin University)

Trevor Pinch[15] (M.Sc. graduate)

Peter Hammill (Musician and graduate)

Philip Gummett (former professor, former head of HEFCW)

Jarlath Ronayne[16] (academic and former vice-chancellor of the Victoria University of Technology)

See also

References

  1. ^ "Manchester Institute of Innovation Research website".
  2. ^ "Ian Miles". Research Explorer The University of Manchester. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  3. ^ "Our people - Manchester Institute of Innovation Research - The University of Manchester". www.mioir.manchester.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  4. ^ Agar, Jon (2019). Science Policy Under Thatcher. UCL Press. p. 54. ISBN 9781787353411.
  5. ^ Hills, P. (1 November 1995). "Prest's experience of evaluation". Scientometrics. 34 (3): 401–414. doi:10.1007/BF02018008. ISSN 1588-2861.
  6. ^ Buisseret, T; Cameron, H; Georghiou, L (1995). "What difference does it make? Additionality in the public support of R&D in large firms". International Journal of Technology Management. 10 (4–6): 587–600.
  7. ^ "Home Page". The Productivity Institute. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  8. ^ "University of Manchester, Department of Liberal Studies in Science Archive - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  9. ^ Jevons, F. R. (1967). "The Honours School of Liberal Studies in Science, University of Manchester". The International Journal of Electrical Engineering & Education. 5 (2): 275–279. doi:10.1177/002072096700500216. ISSN 0020-7209.
  10. ^ "Annual report / Policy Research in Engineering, Science and Technology". Wellcome Collection. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  11. ^ "Fred Jevons lecture: Equity for Women in Science | Alliance MBS". www.alliancembs.manchester.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  12. ^ "UK Government Web Archive". webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  13. ^ "AMBS academic in top 100 most cited scholars | Alliance MBS". www.alliancembs.manchester.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  14. ^ "Our history | ACU". www.acu.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  15. ^ "Pioneering professor Trevor Pinch dies at 69 | Department of Science & Technology Studies". sts.cornell.edu. 20 December 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  16. ^ Murphy, Jennifer. "Library Guides: Victoria University Archives: Victoria University of Technology / Victoria University". libraryguides.vu.edu.au. Retrieved 12 October 2023.

53°27′39″N 2°13′47″W / 53.460811°N 2.229656°W / 53.460811; -2.229656