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Professor Steve Currall launches new department at inaugural lecture

20 June 2007

A new °×С½ãÂÛ̳ department, °×С½ãÂÛ̳ Management Science & Innovation (MS&I), was announced last night.

Steve Currall Professor Steve Currall, giving his inaugural lecture as Professor of Management Science & Innovation, outlined the structure of the new department, as well as launching °×С½ãÂÛ̳ Advances, a venture to bring °×С½ãÂÛ̳ researchers together with business and investors.

In his explanation of °×С½ãÂÛ̳ MS&I, Professor Currall defined the term 'Management Science' as "the academic field that conducts theoretical and empirical research on managerial, organisational and operational dynamics in innovation-intensive organisations."

The other part of the department's name, 'Innovation', is also important to an understanding of °×С½ãÂÛ̳ MS&I's activities. He said: "There are other departments that are akin to ours at, for example, Stanford University and London Business School. At Stanford, the department is called 'Management Science and Engineering' and at London Business School it is called 'Management Science and Operations'. At °×С½ãÂÛ̳, we considered 'Management Science and Technology', but decided in favour of 'Innovation' instead because there are many academics at °×С½ãÂÛ̳, such as our friends in Social & Historical Sciences, Arts & Humanities, and the Slade School, who are developing brilliant innovations, yet these may not include tangible technologies that can have intellectual property… We wish to be of value to all of °×С½ãÂÛ̳'s academic units. For that reason, we chose the word 'Innovation'."

Alongside the launch of °×С½ãÂÛ̳ MS&I, Professor Currall also announced °×С½ãÂÛ̳ Advances, which replaces the °×С½ãÂÛ̳ Centre for Enterprise and the Management of Innovation. °×С½ãÂÛ̳ Advances will lead efforts to reach out to the business and investor communities and build links for knowledge transfer. It will also 'reach in' towards °×С½ãÂÛ̳'s researchers, providing training and support to help members of the university develop their research innovations into commercial businesses.

Professor Currall's speech, held in the Cruciform Lecture Theatre 1, was unusual for an inaugural lecture, as it was not exclusively about his research. However, he did give details of some pioneering work he conducted in 2006, looking at public perceptions of nanotechnology. In a study entitled 'What drives public acceptance of nanotechnology?', published in 'Nature Nanotechnology', he found that consumers, when considering products using nanotechnology, weigh up potential risks and benefits in relation to one another, and that better informed people are generally more positive about the technology. His conclusion was that transparency is vital when relating risk information about new technologies to the public.

Professor Currall cited his work on perceptions of nanotechnology as an example of the sort of work °×С½ãÂÛ̳ MS&I will be engaged with. He also listed some other areas where the department is already carrying out research, including social networks among venture capitalists in the semiconductor industry, the organisational structure of academic life science departments and their relations to biotechnology companies, the psychology of creativity and innovation, and project portfolio management in corporate research and development functions.

To find out more, follow the links at the bottom of this article.

Image 1: Professor Currall speaking at his inaugural lecture
Image 2: The logo for °×С½ãÂÛ̳ Advances, which replaces the Centre for Enterprise & the Management of Innovation.


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