SHOW PREVIEW
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Technologies on a plate
Ahead of the CCW | London Summit – where private capital will discuss advancing green technologies – CCW talks to Richard Miller, head of sustainability at the UK Technology Strategy Board, sets out the public sector role in bringing startups forward
WORDS Rob Bell O
nce home to the Industrial Revolution, the UK has a proud tradition of innovation. Successive
governments – from opposite ends of the political spectrum – have committed to taking a leadership role in the transition to a low-carbon global economy. This translates into funding support
for research and development, action to drive the development of new national and international markets, and designing regulation to incentivize the development and deployment of new technologies. Richard Miller is leading the
government’s push to support new clean technologies as head of innovation for the Technology Strategy Board. With government no longer in the business of generating energy – and certainly not engaged in the manufacture of motor vehicles – but with an ambition to see the UK lead on cleantech and renewables and reap the economic rewards that will bring, Miller
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is tasked with managing public sector support for technology development. His job is to do all he can to bring startups to a position where private capital can take over, and commercial manufacturing can begin. The TSB has been working closely with the Carbon War Room ahead of the Creating Climate Wealth London Summit. Miller says, rather diplomatically: “We do not lack for very well-organized NGOs that play an immensely important role in raising awareness and getting these issues on people’s agendas. But there is more of a problem obtaining the fi nance to move the solutions forward. “Whether technologies are still
at the research stage or the market introduction stage there are lots of barriers to overcome. The public sector has a role to play but we need other players to
unlock mainstream funding. The most important thing about the War Room is its focus on fi nding the opportunities where money needs to fl ow, where there is a commercial opportunity that people haven’t quite grasped yet. “That ability to convene both the
money side and the innovation side of the story is very exciting.”
Meeting the private sector Miller sees the London summit as an opportunity to communicate the hard work – and carefully targeted funding – that government, through the TSB, is bringing to the cleantech innovation sector. And to learn how government money can be better utilized in future, to bring green innovations to the brink of commercialization so the private sector can step in. He says: “We work with ideas coming out of universities and emerging in industry, so it’s natural we worry
”CWR’s focus is on fi nding the opportunities where money needs to fl ow, where there is a commercial opportunity people haven’t grasped”
ISSUE 04. SEPTEMBER 2011
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