Henry Etzkowitz speaks about Science City conflict
Sep 29 2009 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal
A LEADING regeneration expert spoke last night about the conflict with his bosses which led to him standing down from Newcastle’s flagship Science City project.
Professor Henry Etzkowitz, former head of a Newcastle University research group set up to transform the region’s economy, upset Science City bosses earlier this year with his outspoken views.
Now, he has left his post at the university years earlier than intended.
His views and those of his bosses at the university came into conflict shortly after he said last May that £23m earmarked for a flagship city centre building risked creating nothing more than another business park.
The warning to Science City bosses was that they were okaying millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money each year with no hope of seeing Newcastle benefit in the long term.
Prof Etzkowitz said he would routinely bring to the university ideas on how to create a science-based workforce and turn the city into a world leader, only to watch his bosses shut down the plans in favour of physical projects such as the building planned for the site of the former Tyne Brewery next to St James’s Park.
Speaking to The Journal, Prof Ertzkowitz, formerly head of the triple helix group and chair in management of innovation, creativity and enterprise, said if the same backing was not given to job creation as is available to building work the Science City partnership was doomed to failure.
“We have sunk money into buildings but I have not seen those same resources available for people. The ideas we had to bring in younger people, researchers, went out the window when they started building plans.
“At Newcastle we have seen that they placed the look of the building for the business school over the need to hire top people.”
Prof Etzkowitz said projects such as the Businesses Innovation Machine was one of the partnership’s success areas, but questioned whether it would achieve its aim with the small amount of money handed other compared to the tens of millions provided for a potential “Science HQ”.
