The National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) develops, promotes and supports collaboration between universities and business in the United Kingdom. NCUB is a trading name of the Council for Industry and Higher Education, a registered charity. NCUB is headed by Dr Joe Marshall (Chief Executive) and

Sam Laidlaw William Samuel Hugh Laidlaw (born 3 January 1956, Kensington) is the Executive Chairman of Neptune Energy, the independent E&P company. He is former chief executive officer of Centrica, the British natural gas and Energy use and conservation in ...

(Chair). The body's Leadership Council has representation from the UK's businesses and universities.

Predecessor

The Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) was born in 1986 from the collaboration of

James Prior James Michael Leathes Prior, Baron Prior, (11 October 1927 – 12 December 2016) was a British Conservative Party politician. A Member of Parliament from 1959 to 1987, he represented the Suffolk constituency of Lowestoft until 1983 and then ...

, John Cassels and Pauline Perry. Perry (at that time the Chief Inspector of Schools at the Department for Education) had heard about an American organisation that had managed to bring businesses and universities closer together. Cassels (as Director General of the

National Economic Development Office National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

) was a believer in the power of partnership, while Prior was a recent Cabinet member and the new chairman of the GEC industrial conglomerate. He agreed to invite the heads of a range of businesses, universities and polytechnics to a couple of initial discussions to see if there was a common cause that might be addressed through a partnership approach. CIHE was registered as a charity and a

private company limited by guarantee In British, Australian, Bermudian, Hong Kong and Irish company law (and previously New Zealand), a company limited by guarantee (CLG) is a type of corporation used primarily (but not exclusively) for non-profit organisations that require legal pe ...

in 1997. The council was funded by its member organisations and by external organisations. The funding sources included universities, other organisations and companies. Each member organisation appointed one person to the council, and seven of them were trustees. In the time leading up to the 2013 reorganisation, the chairman of CIHE was Richard Greenhalgh.

Formation

Sir Tim Wilson's review of university-business collaboration, published in February 2012, made 30 recommendations. One of them was that the CIHE develop to become the focal point of such collaboration, as a membership charity. In response, and at the request of the

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills , type = Department , logo = Department for Business, Innovation and Skills logo.svg , logo_width = 200px , logo_caption = , picture = File:Лондан. 2014. Жнівень 26.JPG , seal = , se ...

, CIHE adopted the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) trading name in 2013. Following the announcement, the four UK research funding councils – through

RCUK Research Councils UK, sometimes known as RCUK, was a non-departmental public body which coordinated science policy in the United Kingdom from 2002 to 2018. It was an umbrella organisation that coordinated the seven separate research councils tha ...

and the

Technology Strategy Board Innovate UK is the United Kingdom's innovation agency, which provides money and support to organisations to make new products and services. It is a non-departmental public body operating at arm's length from the Government as part of the United ...

(TSB) (now

Innovate UK Innovate UK is the United Kingdom's innovation agency, which provides money and support to organisations to make new products and services. It is a non-departmental public body operating at arm's length from the Government as part of the United ...

) – agreed to help fund NCUB. NCUB was launched with an event at the

BT Tower The BT Communication Tower is a grade II listed communications tower located in Fitzrovia, London, owned by BT Group. Originally named the Museum Radio Tower (after the adjacent Museum telephone exchange), it became better known by its unoff ...

, with

David Docherty David Docherty is a British writer, journalist, academic, television executive and producer and former CEO of the National Centre for Universities and Business. He writes both fiction and non-fiction, the former falling into the thrillers genre ...

and Richard Greenhalgh becoming the organisation's first CEO and Chairman respectively.

References

{{reflist Business education in the United Kingdom Educational charities based in the United Kingdom Higher education organisations based in the United Kingdom