The Societys response advocates that the ten-year framework must avoid prioritising specific areas of research and concentrate on achieving the capacity and developing the mechanisms so that we can seize the foreseeable and unforeseeable opportunities that will arise. The most important element of this capacity is the skills base, and the framework must urgently address the shortfall in the supply of mathematics, engineering and physical science graduates and in people with technical skills.
The framework should also embody a sustained commitment to basic research and links between different stakeholders in the R&D base, and should pay full attention to the international dimension of science and innovation.