Innovation is central to UKAEA’s mission to lead the delivery of sustainable fusion energy and maximise the impact of publicly funded research. As a public research organisation, UKAEA generates knowledge, technologies, skills, capabilities, and partnerships that can create value well beyond their original research context.
To help organise and strengthen this work, UKAEA has developed an Innovation Management Framework. The framework describes how we organise, govern, and deliver innovation across the organisation. It sets out the principles, components, and system-level approach that support the identification, development, and translation of innovation opportunities into real-world impact.
The framework reflects UKAEA’s own organisational context and experience. It is not a policy, procedure, or implementation toolkit, and it is not intended as a universal blueprint for other organisations. Instead, it provides a high-level description of the model UKAEA uses, and continues to develop, to manage and drive innovation as an organisational capability.
Why we developed the framework
Innovation in public research organisations does not happen through individual ideas alone. It depends on the wider conditions that allow ideas to be identified, assessed, developed, protected, supported, and translated into use. These conditions include strategy, culture, governance, skills, processes, funding, intellectual property management, portfolio oversight, and routes to adoption and impact.
The UKAEA Innovation Management Framework brings these elements together into a coherent system. It recognises that innovation requires both creativity and discipline: the ability to explore new possibilities, but also the structures needed to make decisions, allocate resources, manage innovation risk, generate evidence, and deliver value and benefits.
This document includes:
- Introduction
- The framework
- Defining innovation
- Ten guiding principles
- Core components
- Component interactions and system dynamics
- Implementing the framework in practice
- References
What the framework covers
The framework is built around ten guiding principles and ten core components.
The guiding principles describe the beliefs that underpin UKAEA’s approach to innovation management. They include the importance of strategic alignment, organisational culture, legitimate and visible innovation functions, responsible speed, spaces to innovate, measurement, external collaboration, and a strong orientation towards products, services, adoption, and impact.
The ten core components describe the main parts of the innovation management system. These include:
- innovation strategy
- innovation culture
- internal interface
- external interface
- innovation governance
- intellectual property management
- innovation accounting
- innovation portfolio
- building innovation
- delivering value
Who may find it useful
The framework may be of interest to public research organisations, innovation teams, knowledge asset management professionals, technology transfer teams, research leaders, policy makers, funders, and partners involved in translating research, knowledge, and technical capability into wider economic, societal, environmental, and strategic impact.
Contact
For further information about UKAEA’s approach to innovation management, contact us.