A CONFERENCE which aims to bring higher education and industry closer together will take place in North Yorkshire next month.

The two-day Yorkshire Universities' 'Higher Education Means Business' Conference at the Majestic Hotel, Harrogate, starting on February 2, is claimed to be the only intelligence gathering and networking event of its kind in the region.

Yorkshire is one of only three regions where university spending on research and development equals that of businesses.

The county's universities account for 45 per cent of R&D investment compared with 23 per cent in the UK as a whole, but the reverse is true of business investment (47 per cent in Yorkshire compared with 68 per cent in the UK).

The event will showcase the successful collaborations which already exist while promoting the need to expand and develop the level of collaboration.

Speakers will include Richard Gregory, chairman of Yorkshire Bank; David Burrows, director of education at Microsoft UK and Malcolm Fallen, chief executive of Kingston Communications.

A number of Question Time-style panel discussions will also include high profile industry representatives from organisations such as Asda, the BBC, KPMG, Smith & Nephew, ICI, Holset Engineering and Ford Motor Company together with numerous vice-chancellors of the region's universities.

Professor Lord Robert Winston will give the after-dinner speech at the Conference dinner. He is most widely known as the award-winning presenter of various BBC series including the latest series The Story Of God. He is also the current Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University.

Updated: 11:22 Friday, January 20, 2006