13 January 2009
Countries: Germany, United Kingdom
Plastic Electronics in the UK benchmarked against Germany
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An analysis of the UK's and Germany's competence in printed and plastic electronics was completed last year, funded by the UK's Economic and Social Research Council. The UK results are shown at this link 
and the German ones here .
and the German ones here .Now Dr Zella King of the University of Reading has drawn conclusions comparing the two countries. She reports that following the current approach:
- German innovations will reach market more quickly through initial lower functionality markets, but UK innovations have greater potential to generate longer-term novel technologies and higher-end applications, especially through SME/start-up companies
- UK approaches fit with business models that are common in UK: Core competences in high resolution, thin layers, novel materials and inks combined with licensing model to package up business offering based on early stage IP
Dr King reports areas of risk for the UK are:
- UK limits its access to revenue streams and some customer types by not testing through to the level of complete systems and application prototypes, for this new platform manufacturing technology
- UK players need to de-risk the technology sell within IP licensing/royalty deals by demonstrating early prototype/proof of product functionality; as time progresses and more rival technologies become available, less value will be captured by UK players who hold core IP not already licensed
- Lower government investment in (especially) capital expenditure will limit UK universities' access to all the available additional revenue streams
- Risk that Innovative Developers in the UK (especially universities) will not be able to fully develop the process and device know-how necessary to support and add value to their IP where they pursue licensing models
For more information download the full document of conclusions here .
.Top image: Dr Zella King
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