The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement included the establishment of the National Productivity Investment Fund, based on the US DARPA approach. The move, he contended, will set ‘identifiable challenges’ for UK researchers. More money will also be supplied, via recently established UK Research & Innovation, for innovation, applied science and research.
All very well; nothing wrong with having almost £5billion to put into R&D, but that work needs to be commercialised. A couple of days before the Statement, Prime Minister Theresa May talked about the need to commercialise discoveries, but the phrase ‘commercial success’ appears just once in the document published by HM Treasury.
What also appears to be missing from the Statement is commitment to building the skills needed to do this work. Can we then assume that the ‘same old faces’ will simply get more cash? Or will we be importing more people with the required skills?
Professor Dame Ann Dowling, president of the Royal Academy of Engineering, pointed out: “It will be important to match these investments with a substantial drive to attract and train more skilled engineers to ensure they make a real difference to productivity and to communities across the UK.”
