R&D Society: Government must maintain support for all areas of UK R&D, from academia to business

In response to Vince Cable’s Science, Research and Innovation speech of 8 September 2010, Sir Richard Sykes, President of the R&D Society comments:

The Government must maintain the support of UK R&D - from academia to businesses large and small - if we are to prosper financially and socially in future. This includes maintaining investment in our world-class science base to attract investment and people from all over the world, and finding ways of encouraging businesses and academia to work together effectively.

Vince Cable asks how to encourage academics to collaborate with industry to maximise the benefit of their research. Universities cannot simply increase the commercial viability of their research by turning on a tap. They need encouragement and support to do so – but they also need businesses who are willing, able and capable of working with them. For academic-business links to succeed, businesses need encouragement too, especially now, when many are having to focus on short-term survival in place of longer-term, R&D-based investment. The commercial R&D sector has been under severe pressure in this recession, and we have seen several commercial R&D labs close or scale back in the UK over the past year.

Though Vince Cable did mention support for the Small Business Research Initiative, he omits to discuss how business might be encouraged to work with academia – for example R&D tax credits, networking support, skills transfer schemes. Businesses want to get on with their job in hand, so Government must be a supporting catalyst, not prescriptive – a midwife, not a nanny. This should not happen at the expense of support for business-business knowledge transfer - the Cinderella largely ignored by successive Governments, but one that powers much of UK innovation, especially around smaller enterprises.

The UK is an attractive place to do R&D, and Vince Cable is rightly proud that many multinational companies locate their R&D operations in the UK. But they will only do so whilst it is in their best interests to. Businesses have told the R&D Society about many different reasons why they choose the UK, and one of the most important is the high quality of UK universities. This provides local access to world-class research, and a regular supply of skilled graduates. We are very worried at the cuts to UK science hinted at in Vince Cable’s speech will have the double whammy of reducing the research and teaching capacity of UK universities and discouraging students from studying research-relevant subjects – resulting in more top performing graduates "heading straight for high finance rather than science and engineering", as Mr Cable laments. In order to maintain the flow of ideas to wealth in the long term, a broad portfolio of high-class 'basic' research must be maintained as the fruits of the future.

2008 R&D Scoreboard published - R&D Society comments "Government must help UK R&D"

Responding to the publication today (26 January 2009) by DIUS and BERR of the 2008 R&D Scoreboard, David Kingham, Chairman of the R&D Society, commented "The overall rise in R&D expenditure by the top 850 UK companies of 6% to £21.6 billion is welcome news, and shows continued confidence in UK companies of the value of R&D to their business. The news that the top 88 UK companies, who also rank in the top 1,400 global investors of R&D, increased their R&D investment by 10.3%, is offset by the Scoreboard’s findings that the remaining companies outside the top 88 grew their R&D by just 1.2% - a fall in real terms."

David Kingham continued, "It is not clear from the Scoreboard whether this reflects cuts in R&D activity or smarter spending by these companies, increasing their R&D efficiency. Given that these figures are from a time period prior to the current recession, we urge the Government to keep a close eye on the R&D activities of UK companies, and maintain and improve their efforts to support UK R&D. "

David Kingham concluded, "We endorse the R&D Scoreboard as a useful tool to enable companies to benchmark their R&D efforts with their peers. Investment in R&D is necessary for the long-term growth of many companies, and now is not the time for the Government to be distracted by short term financial difficulties at the expense of long-term, R&D-based improvements."

Update 27 January 2009: Coverage in Research Fortnight, ScienceBusiness, and The Engineer.

Funding: Media Sandbox for South West England digital media R&D, c/d 29 Nov 2007

Media Sandbox is a new commissioning scheme to support South West companies/organisations to research emerging possibilities in digital media. It is looking to make six catalytic investments in innovative Research and Development pilots which exploit opportunities in digital media presented by pervasive computing/wireless technologies. The scheme is an entirely unique opportunity for SMEs to collaboratively create radical new products and processes – pushing forward understanding and potential usage of next generation digital media. Applicants must attend a collaborative ideas lab on 29 November 2007 in Bristol. The projects
must be innovative and Research and Development based, with at least one partner based in the South West of England.

Policy input: Government (DBERR): Simplifying Business Support c/d 14 Sep 2007

Government wants to simplify the £2.5BN business support in England from around 3000 schemes to no more than 100 by 2010. The Simplifying Business Support consultation outlines and seeks views on the business support government might fund in the future. The majority of the questions posed are of general interest to all businesses. Of specific R&D relevance is that

1. The government is proposing that all business support it offers is in one of six themes, one of which is "Product development", which includes Connection with
   knowledge institutions; Innovation collaborations; Innovation guidance and advice; and, Innovation finance.
   
2. The consultation asks several questions about whether the business support themes are the right themes, whether they adequately covers the key needs of business, and what publicly-funded business support is the highest priority?

Full details, including how to respond, are available at the Simplifying Business Support consultation website. As with all consultations, you do not need to answer all the questions listed when responding.