Insider Media Limited

The government must "bridge the gap" left by the removal of regional development agencies such as the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) if it wants innovation to continue. That's the warning coming from Professor Chris Rudd, pro vice-chancellor for knowledge transfer at the University of Nottingham. He said the institution has helped develop 28 spinout companies.

Professor Rudd told Insider: "The challenge for the UK is how it can manage the dismantling of the RDAs and still continue to support innovation at a local level and that's the big risk. How do you bridge that gap?"

He said he has already been having discussions with EMDA and UKTI on this point ahead of the government introducing local enterprise partnerships.

The university, which attracted £150m worth of funding for research for the first time last year, was honoured as the country's "entrepreneurial university of the year" in 2008 at the Times Higher Education awards.

It has gone on to play a role in developing Nottingham's BioCity - the biggest biosciences facility in Europe with more than 60 businesses on site.

Professor Rudd said: "We take our mission very seriously in terms of driving the local economy with business. We have got 28 spinout companies which are all generating wealth in the East Midlands and most have their main bases in the East Midlands. And we've got the kind of structures to help the SME community."

He spoke of how the university has developed thanks to support from EMDA and the Ingenuity programme.

The Ingenuity programme involves events and workshops held by the University of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent University and the University of Derby to help small businesses develop their expertise and resources. He said the university has also been working with bigger companies such as Experian and Ordnance Survey to develop business links.

Professor Rudd said: "We were the first university that opened an independent campus in China and the first foreign university to invest in Malaysia.

"Developing business links is what we have been doing all along and it's nice to have national recognition - it's not about universities making a little on the side."

The professor also emphasised how important it is for businesses to develop intellectual property rights and innovate in driving turnover and profits.

The University of Nottingham revealed last week that it reached £150m of research funding for the first time in 2009/10. The figure was 7.2 per cent up on last year following awards won from government, research councils, the European Union and charities.