Universities in the United Kingdom have welcomed the government’s announcement of a new innovation strategy to help businesses to innovate “by making the most of the UK’s research, development and innovation system”.
University leaders have called on the government to ensure it is backed by “clear, funded policies and incentives” and also to provide added support for existing and new regional innovation clusters.
But they are pleased with a particular emphasis on funds that help boost university-business collaboration.
The government said the new strategy included a long-term plan to boost private sector investment across the UK and create the right conditions for all businesses to innovate by turning “world-leading science” into new products and services.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “The countries that secure leadership in such transformational technologies will lead the world, enjoying unrivalled growth, security and prosperity for decades to come – and it’s our job to ensure the UK keeps pace with the global innovation race.
“Through this long-term plan, we want to rekindle our country’s flame of innovation and discovery, helping businesses to seize the vast opportunities that innovation can bring.”
The government said the pandemic has shown that major challenges can be resolved by ambitious investment in science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, and has “shown the public what British innovators can deliver when given ambitious support, freedom, and risk tolerance”.
Lessons from the pandemic
The strategy takes lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, including from the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce – where the public and private sectors successfully worked alongside each other – and applies them to find solutions to fundamental challenges facing the UK, including the relative decline in business R&D investment, skills gaps and the need for a pro-enterprise regulatory environment to spur innovation.
To achieve this aim, the government will specify ‘innovation missions’ to set clear direction, urgency and pace on the issues confronting the UK that it wants to tackle with the private sector in the coming years. These will be determined by the new National Science and Technology Council and supported by the Office for Science and Technology Strategy.
The government is also outlining seven strategic technologies to prioritise and build on existing UK R&D strengths, including clean technologies, robotics, genomics and artificial intelligence, where the UK has globally competitive advantage and industrial strength.
The strategy sets out a vision for making the UK a global hub for innovation, based on four pillars:
- Supporting business who want to innovate.
- Making the UK “the most exciting place for innovation talent”.
- Ensuring research, development and innovation institutions serve the needs of businesses and places across the UK.
- Stimulating innovation to tackle major challenges faced by the UK and the world and drive capability in key technologies.
The government will increase annual public spending on R&D to a record £22 billion (US$30 billion) by 2024-25 and private R&D investment to 2.4% of gross domestic product by 2027.
Among the many measures promised, it will introduce new High Potential Individual and Scale-up visa routes, and revitalise the Innovator visa route to attract and retain high-skilled, globally mobile innovation talent.
Funded policies and incentives needed
Dr Joe Marshall, chief executive of the National Centre for Universities and Business, which represents a collective voice of leaders across higher education and business, said: “Although the Innovation Strategy sets out a clear vision and strategy focused around ‘innovation missions’ and seven ‘strategic technologies’, it is critical that this is now backed with clear, funded policies and incentives to enable it.
“A strategy alone is not enough. We are now calling on the Chancellor to deliver this clarity in the Comprehensive Spending Review, planned for later in the year. The UK’s universities and businesses will stand ready to support the government on this.”
Dr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group, which represents 24 leading research-intensive universities, said UK universities are already at the heart of numerous innovation success stories, from medical scanners and COVID treatments to advanced materials and ultra-realistic gaming software.
“Harnessing this innovation and enterprise will be vital to our recovery from the pandemic and to deliver on the government’s net zero and levelling up agendas,” he said.
He said the UK’s top universities “consistently deliver huge value to the economy and society through the jobs and investment they bring right across the country – not just with cutting-edge discoveries and early-stage investment in new ideas, but also in developing the pipeline of future high-skilled workers required to support innovation”.
Bradshaw said the Russell Group welcomes the new innovation strategy’s emphasis on innovation funds like Connecting Capabilities and Strength in Places, which help boost university-business collaboration and support innovative businesses across the UK to capitalise on emerging technologies in areas of national importance.
Scaling up ‘a priority’
Bradshaw said: “Scaling up these types of innovation schemes should be a priority. For example, the Higher Education Innovation Fund delivers around £10 for the economy for every £1 of public investment, so an extra £250 million spent here could deliver £2.5 billion worth of added value.
“We hope the government will also take the opportunity to help unlock the potential of the UK’s regions by supporting existing and new regional innovation clusters with research-intensive universities at their heart, which have proven success in bringing high-skilled jobs and investment to all regions of the country.”
Marshall added: “Businesses tell us time and time again that the foundations of the research system, including the fundamental research conducted in the UK’s world-leading universities, are one of their most important drivers for investing in R&D.
“As a next step, the government must find a way to bind the Research and Development Roadmap published last year and the Innovation Strategy, published today, together. After all, economic recovery rests on the government, businesses, universities and others working together to create the best possible environment for growth.”