Isis and Central Saint Martins to collaborate on Open Innovation

Isis Innovation, the technology commercialisation company for the University of Oxford, and CSM Innovation, the design consultancy arm of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, have come together to offer what they are calling “a fresh approach to Open Innovation”.

The partnership brings together expertise in commercialising cutting-edge technologies from the labs at Oxford University, with a consumer driven approach to product development, brand strategy, understanding cultural drivers and trend forecasting from Central Saint Martins. Working closely with clients, these two organisations are offering a new approach to accelerate innovation to develop new product and service concepts.

“We’ve got a lot of experience in commercialising technology. The people at Central St Martins have a lot of experience in talking to customers about new design,” says Terry Pollard from Isis.

“The very nature of what we do here is very often technology push,” says Pollard from Isis. “The Central St Martins side, on the design side, is talking sometimes to the same companies, but on a different angle, looking to understand what the trends are.”

The idea, says Pollard, is to offer a range of services: either Isis calling in Central Saint Martins for design and trend thinking, or Isis being called in to offer scientific and tech transfer advice – or, more innovatively, a joint approach to companies from the two organisations, offering an integrated service with a multidisciplinary team of scientists, designers, and people used to working at the interface between the two.

Central Saint Martins is the largest college of art and design in the UK, and one of the six constituent colleges of the University of Arts London.