The Employment and Learning Minister, Sir Reg Empey, has confirmed that collaboration between Higher Education and Business has had a positive impact on the local economy.

The Minister revealed the Northern Ireland findings in the UK-wide Higher Education-Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey report. This shows that Northern Ireland Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have received almost £30million in income from collaborative research, 26% more than last year.

Sir Reg said: “As well as the increase in collaborative research income achieved by our two universities, which now stands at almost £30million, the value of individual research contracts with the two universities are now, on average, 24% higher than last year.

“Commercial businesses and public and third sector organisations here see the benefits that the expertise within our universities can bring and are spending over £20million on contract research and a further £4.1million on specialist consultancy services.

“This success reflects the growing emphasis of the universities on Third Stream activities, i.e. business and community facing, which receives core funding jointly from my Department and Invest NI through the Higher Education Innovation Fund. The results in this report show how our HEIs continue to be successful in deploying their knowledge and expertise to respond effectively to the challenges and opportunities in the downturn with the support of my Department.”

Overall UK universities and colleges continue to make a substantial contribution to the economy and society across a broad range of activities intended to have direct social benefits.

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The full report can be found at www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2010/10_14/