Gaslight to gigahertz: seventy-five years of collaborative foresight

At the time when the world relied on gas lighting and coal fires for heating, the Institution of Electrical Engineers created the concept of collaborative research to assist the growth of the industry. In 1912, it set up a Research Committee to originate and co-ordinate programmes on electrotechnical matters. This was the start of using technology foresight to yield commercial success. The Research Committee was the foundation from which grew the independent contract research and development company, ERA Technology Ltd. This review looks at the history of the Company, from its early work on electricity generation to replace gas lighting to the development of some of the most advanced communication systems having bandwidths measured in tens of gigahertz