The SIN (Science and Innovation Network) is a UK government venture, which builds opportunities for the UK scientific community to enter into partnerships with policy, business and academic counterparts around the world. Located in about 30 countries around the world, the network is made up of about 90 staff.
Their goal is to highlight innovation by bringing the ‘best of the best’ scientific brains of the host nation together with those in the UK to help create jobs and thus promote prosperity in addition to encouraging collaborative working, so that global challenges such as food and water shortages, cures for cancer and new and exciting technology can be explored and developed to be delivered to all peoples around the world.
As you’ll see from the new SIN Report we are not averse to ‘SINning’ in northern Europe either!
In 2011 SIN Sweden ran a workshop for small companies, UK researchers and large companies from Denmark, Finland and Sweden to boost collaboration in ICT. Nordic countries are particularly recognised for their expertise in this area and the result of this meeting was that the Heads of Research and Development in BT and Ericsson are now working much closer with one another, bringing the two countries closer in terms of both technology and business.
Also, as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, the Embassy in Stockholm ran a biomass investors meeting attended by HRH Prince Charles. Several existing and potential Swedish investors to the UK and hi tech companies pioneering biofuels for companies like Virgin Atlantic attended.
SIN Finland organised a UK–Finland partnering event for 50 UK participants from the Helsinki Sustainable Buildings 2011 event with Finnish green buildings contacts. Issues such as the sustainable buildings’ effort behind the London Olympic park were discussed. As a result, the Technology Strategy Board and the Finnish innovation agency TEKES, are discussing potential ways to work together more closely. So in this respect at least SIN has its virtues! My colleague Susan Stradling-Day is head of the Nordic SIN network if you’re interested in following up.