Professor Ian Oakes

Marches LEP Higher Education Champion

Professor Ian Oakes is the higher education champion on the Marches LEP Board, and Pro Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise at the University of Wolverhampton. He is responsible for the university's research agenda and developing the growing innovation and enterprise arena at regional, national and international levels.

Professor Oakes has held a number of senior management posts in higher education before joining the University of Wolverhampton in 2008. He has been involved in an extensive programme of technology transfer activities, both national and transnational, operating across a range of sectors and has led the development of a number of initiatives focusing specifically on the transfer of technology from academia to both large and small firms. His research interests have included developing models of world class performance in small manufacturing companies and more recently have focused on the role of university-business collaboration in influencing regional innovation. He has published widely in the field of innovation and technology transfer in the small firm manufacturing sector.