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Competition results harnessing data

Julian Todd made this Freedom of Information request to Technology Strategy Board

The request was partially successful.

From: Julian Todd

7 February 2011

Dear Technology Strategy Board,

According to the: "Harnessing Large and Diverse Sources of Data -
competition for collaborative R&D funding September 2010" brochure,
which used to be on this page:

http://www.innovateuk.org/content/compet...

"""
The Technology Strategy Board will invest up to £7m to fund
collaborative research and development projects that will lead to
new technologies and strategies to help businesses extract greater
value from large and diverse sources of data (or information), and
which drive a robust data economy...

The Technology Strategy Board has allocated up to £7m to fund
collaborative research and development projects that align with the
scope we have described. Projects are expected to last no more than
18 months and we expect to invest £100-500k in each project,
although we will consider projects outside this range...

Competition opens: 13 September 2010...
Decision and feedback to applicants:
by end of January 2011
"""

I have searched, but cannot find, what are the results of this
competition.

Accordingly, please send me the following information in whatever
tabular form is most convenient:

1) The number of applicants to this competition

2) The list of all applicants to this competition

3) The average score ratings awarded by the assessors for each
project.

4) The number of winners

5) The list of winners

6) The amount that was awarded to each winner

Thank you for your consideration of this request. I hope to use any
information to improve the quality of any proposals I am associated
with in future.

Yours faithfully,

Julian Todd

Link to this

From: Ravinder Singh (TSB)
Technology Strategy Board

7 February 2011

Dear Mr Todd,

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) which we received today.

This email is to advise you of the date by which you will receive a full response from us. Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act this is 20 working days from receipt (day 1 being the first working day after the request was received). Therefore the deadline for the full response is 07th March 2011. The reference for the request is 06-11.

Further information about the Freedom of Information Act can be found on the Information Commissioners website: http://www.ico.gov.uk/

Please contact me in the first instance if you have any queries.

Kind regards,

Ravinder Singh
Information Manager

Technology Strategy Board
Switch: +44(0)1793 442700
Direct: +44(0)1793 442793
Mobile: +44(0)7789876198
email : [email address]

The Technology Strategy Board is a business-led executive non-departmental public body, established by the Government. Its mission is to promote and support research into, and development and exploitation of, technology and innovation for the benefit of UK business, in order to increase economic growth and improve the quality of life

show quoted sections

Link to this

From: Ravinder Singh (TSB)
Technology Strategy Board

7 March 2011

06 11 response 07 03 11.pdf
116K Download View as HTML

Annex A Harnessing Data Competition.pdf
52K Download View as HTML

Guidance for Applicants Harnessing Data Mainstream 1.pdf
1.1M Download View as HTML

press release harnessing data results 28feb11 final 1.pdf
119K Download View as HTML

Dear Mr Todd

Please find attached our response to your Freedom of Information request.

Ravinder Singh

Information Manager

Technology Strategy Board

Switch: +44(0)1793 442700

email : [1][email address]

The Technology Strategy Board is a business-led executive non-departmental
public body, established by the Government. Its mission is to promote and
support research into, and development and exploitation of, technology and
innovation for the benefit of UK business, in order to increase economic
growth and improve the quality of life

_______________________________________________________________ This
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use of the recipient(s) to whom they are addressed. If you have received
it in error, please destroy all copies and inform the sender. This email
and any attachments are believed to be free from viruses but the
Technology Strategy Board accepts no liability in connection therewith.
Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the
author and do not necessarily represent those of the Technology Strategy
Board. _______________________________________________________________
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Richard Greenwood left an annotation ( 9 March 2011)

Just had a look at this response. I am not sure what you want the information for, but the reliance on the Section 41 exemption to withhold information for question 2 and question 3 is ridiculous.

Section 41 relates to information provided to the public authority in confidence, and covers very specific cases where the release of this would lead to an actionable breach of confidence.

In respect of your question 2, s41 would not apply to something as trivial as the name of an organisation which has bid for some work - it would not generally apply to the actual bid they submitted for that work. The only exemption which could potentially apply is s43 (Commercial Interests), but again it is highly unlikely that the release of the name of an organisation that applied for funding would be commercially sensitive. Also s43 has a public interest test applied to it, so the public authority needs to properly consider whether it is in the public interest to withhold the information (against a general interest in favour of disclosure).

The use of s41 to withhold the answer to your question 3 is just plain ridiculous. S41 does not mean that anything that someone deems to be confidential is exempt from publication. It certainly does not apply to information generated BY the public authority - it only applies to information supplied TO the public authority where it was clearly provided in confidence (and not just asserted to be confidential). Any guidance notes issued to the evaluators do not take precedence over the law. Again there is the potential that they could use s43 (Commercial Interests) here, and they may have more success in so doing (as it may damage the commercial interests either of the public authority or of the bidders to release details of the strengths and weaknesses of their submissions). However, again this is subject to a public interest test, and also they should consider every page of evaluation material to decide what can be released and what they think can be redacted.

As I guess you will have picked up, it irritates me when public authorities incorrectly withhold information. The absolute exemptions like s41 are there to cover very narrow cases, and should not be used as a catch all to deny the public the right to information.

Don't know whether you really need the information they are withholding, but if you do, I suggest you ask them for an Internal Review of the decision to deny you the information on the basis that s41 is totally inappropriate.