Welcome From CRIC's Executive Director

It is my great pleasure to introduce you to the web pages of CRIC, the Centre for Research in Innovation and Competition at the University of Manchester. One of the main objectives of CRIC's research is to cast new light on processes of competition and the role that innovation plays in this area. We are particularly concerned to explore this theme in the context of service activities, new forms of 'distributed' organisation for innovation, and the role of consumption practices in relation to innovation.

The Centre is hosted by the University of Manchester, draws upon the expertise of colleagues from the Faculty of Humanities, School of Social Sciences, the Manchester Business School and Policy Research in Engineering, Science and Technology (PREST). This research is also enhanced by our collaborative work with many international scholars who are associate fellows in CRIC. My Co-Directors are Professor Stan Metcalfe, Professor Ian Miles and Professor Alan Warde. Professor Rod Coombs has also been at CRIC as my Co-Director and is now a Vice-President (Innovation and Economic Devlopment) for the University of Manchester.

Our research staff are drawn from a wide range of backgrounds, economics, geography, management and sociology. We are confident that we are pursuing an ambitious research programme of fundamental work at the interface between social and management science. Please visit our individual home-pages, our publications page for working and discussion paper abstracts and send us your comments by email. Another way of actively interacting with the wider community interested in our work is to join our online Innovation-Competition mailing list.

Complementary to our relationship with our academic colleagues, CRIC also has excellent working relationships with agencies such as the DTI and CBI, trade unions and public and private companies. Our seminar pages outline the seminars and workshops which we host on many aspects of the innovation process which have practical consequences for managers and professionals in UK companies both in the public and private sector and I am sure will be of great interest to you.

Many of you who access the web page will have interests in the field of innovation and related studies, some of you as scholars others as practising managers. I encourage everyone interested in this field of work to get in touch with CRIC. We have excellent facilities and are always happy to discuss the possibility of hosting workshops or conferences. There is an enormous amount of work to be done. Do come and join us!

I am sure that you will be able to find most of the information about CRIC that you are looking for on our web site. However if you need to make a general enquiry you can write to us at: CRIC, The University of Manchester, Harold Hankins Building, Booth Street West, Manchester M13 9QH or telephone (+44) 0161 275 7365

Jeremy Howells, Executive Director CRIC