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(Photograph) - Universities and industry need to work closer together to ensure that the country's brightest talent does not move abroad, according to Lord Puttnam, chairman of Enigma Productions and chancellor of Sunderland University.

Lord Puttnam (pictured), speaking at the launch of Celebration of Innovation 2000, a week-long event organised by the Department of Trade and Industry, said: "The crucial role of our education system is specifically to develop the knowledge and skills to cope with new industrial paradigms. Our intellectual property will be as valuable to the UK as the natural resources of coal and oil were in the last century."