£1 billion for UK science and innovation

David Sainsbury: report leads to new package of support.

The review, entitled “A Race to the Top”, said the UK has significantly improved its innovation performance in recent years, but still needs to do more to produce the best possible conditions to stimulate innovation in industry.

The government accepted the recommendations and announced a new package of support for technology and innovation in business, led by the Technology Strategy Board with the Research Councils and the Regional Development Agencies.

There will be moves to improve the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects, by boosting investments in the training of specialist science teachers, improving careers advice, doubling the number of science and engineering school clubs, and establishing a National Science Competition.

The strategy aims also to improve knowledge transfer between the research base and business through an improved Higher Education Innovation Fund, building up support for business-facing universities, and a doubling of the number of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships to boost research-business links.

The Small Business Research Initiative will be reformed, with more effective use of government procurement to drive business innovation, a national proof-of-concept fund, and for incubators, high-technology clusters and business readiness services from the regional development agencies

At the same time there will be initiatives to increase international collaborations to help attract researchers from abroad and link British researchers with researchers globally.

The success of these measures will be audited and recorded in an annual Cross-Government Innovation Report.

The government said the measure would make it easier for business to apply the fruits of research and turn good ideas into new products, with the Technology Strategy Board supporting business R&D and innovation across all sectors of the economy.