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What is the future of innovation support in the UK?
The national Academies are hosting a series of four Policy Lab events considering the landscape for UK research and innovation after the 2015 Spending Review. This event will look at the current scope of support for innovation in the UK and what a coherent strategy for the future should include.
The outcomes of the 2015 Spending Review were broadly positive for UK research and innovation. However, significant changes are on the horizon for the research and innovation landscape, including: implementation of the Nurse Review recommendations and possible changes to higher education, as proposed in the Higher Education green paper.
A number of changes to innovation support were set out at the Spending Review, including the conversion of a proportion of Innovate UK’s grants to new-finance products, increased funding for the Catapult Centres and investment for the automotive and aerospace sectors. The government also announced that it would look to integrate Innovate UK into Research UK, raising questions about the role and voice of innovation in the research ecosystem.
As the UK’s innovation agency, what should the purpose and scope of Innovate UK be? How could the proposed changes to the research and innovation landscape better support business-university collaboration? What should a coherent long-term plan for innovation include and how well will the National Innovation Plan support innovation in the UK? How can innovation success be determined?
Ian Shott CBE FREng chaired a panel of speakers including:
- Kevin Baughan – Chief Development Officer at Innovate UK
- Elspeth Finch – CEO & Founder, Indigo&; Chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering Innovators' Network and formerly Director of Innovation, ATKINS
- Hermann Hauser KBE FRS FREng – co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners and co-Chair of the Royal Society Science, Industry and Translation Committee.
- Professor Paul Nightingale – Deputy Director, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex.
You can read a blog post about this event on In Verba
Follow the discussion using #AcademiesAfterSR