< Previous page ^ Table of Contents Next page >

Creation of a Cambridge University Reach-Out Office: Notice

24 July 2000

In paragraph 70 of their recent Report on the financial position of the Chest (Reporter, 1999-2000, p. 782) the Council referred to the establishment of a Reach-Out Office in response to the HERoBaC (Higher Education Reach-out to Business and the Community) initiative from the HEFCE. This Notice gives further information about that initiative and about the Reach-Out Office.

During the autumn of 1999 the University submitted a bid for money from HEFCE under what the Government had billed as an emergent 'third arm' of funding. The HERoBaC Fund was intended to increase the capacity of HEIs to respond to the needs of business, including companies of all sizes, and the wider community, where this will lead to wealth creation. Initially set at £60m over four years, the Fund is expected to grow to several times that value, drawing in funds from other government sources and from the private sector.

The University's bid described the very wide range of activities which have led to the Cambridge region being recognized as one of the leading clusters of knowledge-based innovation and entrepreneurship in western Europe. It pointed out, however, that the University's interface with business, industry, and the community has always been extremely fragmented. Whilst recognizing the importance of preserving entrepreneurial autonomy and capacity to innovate, the bid acknowledged that more co-ordination and communication was needed in order to ensure that initiatives by different people and institutions were complementary and effective. Otherwise, the University risked losing significant opportunities.

The University's bid to HEFCE was successful and an allocation of £1.1m over four years was awarded. The major part of this grant is being used to set up a Reach-Out Office, which will be a new operational entity attached to the University Offices, under the day-to-day management of Dr Christopher Padfield, who has been seconded from the Board of Continuing Education's Cambridge Programme for Industry for this purpose. Dr Padfield, who will now report to the Treasurer, is recruiting a team which will initially consist of himself as Director, a Corporate Relations Officer, a Knowledge Management Officer, and three administrative and support staff.

The Reach-Out Office will seek to establish open and collaborative relationships with Faculties and Departments and will operate in close association with other 'service' institutions, including the Development Office, the Careers Service, the Press and Publications Office, the Research Services Division of the University Offices (particularly the Wolfson Industrial Liaison Office), and the Cambridge Entrepreneurship Centre. It is also hoped that there will be scope within the CMI project for the Reach-Out Office to collaborate closely with the Office of Corporate Relations in MIT.

The new Office is intended to provide an additional resource for academics and the business community. It will have two main activities: assisting with the development and nurturing of partnerships and relationships between the University and external organizations, and providing sophisticated information services (generally web-based) both to external enquirers and to the academic community within the University.

The Reach-Out Office will initially be housed in No. 1 Trumpington Street, but is expected to move elsewhere in Trumpington Street later this year or early in 2001. Contact details for the present are as follows:

UMS: Reach-Out Office

Post: 1 Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1QA

Telephone: (3)32684

Fax: 301122 (not network)

Mobile 07720 078468

E-mail: cjp1000@cam.ac.uk


< Previous page ^ Table of Contents Next page >

Cambridge University Reporter, 9 August 2000
Copyright © 2000 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.