It also calls for a greater focus on the practicality of commercialisation for small firms, to create a stronger culture of entrepreneurship between schools, universities and the private sector and also to better support smaller companies to help them grow.
The report, Innovation Britain: How can the UK lead the world in RD investment?, is being launched in Parliament today by the Dods Innovation Panel.
The programme, now in its second year, brings together organisations including Boeing, Pfizer, Institute of Mechanical Engineers, University of Southampton, EPSRC, The ERA Foundation, Cardiff University, Raytheon and Spirit Aerosystems, to debate the future of British innovation and how it can contribute to growing the UK economy and boosting exports.
Andrew Miller MP, Chairman of Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee and Dods Innovation Panellist, said:
“By bringing together key industry players, academics and politicians, the panel has drawn on the diverse expertise and experiences of participants to provide a truly fresh, cross-sector and cross-party perspective on what is needed to propel the UK higher up the league tables on international competitiveness in innovation, research and development, and skills.”
As part of the dialogue process, Dods ran the second year of the “We Made It!” competition, designed to get young people thinking about careers in manufacturing.
Dods and its partners invited 11-14 year olds throughout the UK to design a brand new product. The winning designs have been produced in prototype form.
Hundreds of young people across the country took part and in total the Dods Innovation Panel received over 520 entries. The shortlisted entries were selected by Members of Parliament and went through to the next stage of the competition, the formal judging day, where a panel of manufacturing experts whittled down the shortlist to seven national finalists who got to make prototypes of their invention.
George Freeman MP, Adviser on Life Sciences to Rt Hon David Willetts MP as Minister of State for Universities and Science will be giving the keynote address at the launch reception (12:30-14:00 Tuesday 11th March, Churchill Dining Room, House of Commons).
The Dialogue report draws from a series of research exercises including polling of MPs, three themed roundtables in Parliament and fringe meetings at the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat party conferences in autumn 2013.
With increasing exports identified as part of growing the UK economy, it is worth noting that Dr Adam Marshall, Director of Policy and External Affairs at the British Chambers of Commerce observed that the UK only spent 0.05 per cent of GDP on export support. This needs to be boosted to help develop and increase UK exports. This must be set against the fact that the UK imports more goods than it exports (with the deficit being around £107 billion in 2012).
The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2012-13 ranks the UK 12th globally in its ‘capacity for innovation’, the ability of businesses to obtain new technologies. However, the majority of MPs polled by the Dods Innovation Panel as part of the dialogue (58 per cent) believe that the UK ranks higher. The same report ranks the quality of the UK’s educational system, and its ability to meet the needs of the country’s competitive economy, as 27th. 84 per cent of MPs polled believe that the UK ranked higher than that. These polling results are worrying as they show a disconnect between MPs’ perceptions and reality. The majority of MPs polled also believe that there should be an even balance in RD spending between government and the private sector, although as the report highlights, this is not the case.
The report offers four key, high-level recommendations to policy makers for how to achieve this:
• Attract as many people as possible into STEM subjects – This has to begin as early as possible, which means that primary school teachers need to be made aware of the opportunities offered by careers in science and engineering, the better to enthuse their pupils. The ‘We Made It!’ competition, conducted as part of this year’s dialogue is a good example of a simple, cost-effective way of engaging school children with the possibilities offered by manufacturing.
The ‘We Made It!’ competition, and similar initiatives, such as the Schools Build a Plane Challenge, run by Boeing and the Royal Aeronautical Society, and the Primary Engineer campaign run by Tomorrow’s Engineers and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, are vital to challenging perceptions, particularly since such perceptions are often out-dated or entirely wrong-headed. Any attempt to engage greater numbers of children must also address the gender imbalance: increasing female participation in STEM subjects offers a means of dramatically raising numbers.
• Put a greater focus on the practicalities of commercialisation – Having a great idea is not in itself enough. The innovation ecosystem in the UK is strong on ideas, but less proficient when it comes to turning these into viable products. The formation of catapult centres and the Business Bank are welcome developments in this regard, but these are still in the early stages of development and every effort must be made to ensure that they are as effective as possible.
• Create a stronger culture of entrepreneurship – Universities are often told that they need to do more to foster entrepreneurship (for example, in the Wilson review), but to effectively change the culture requires a more sustained intervention that starts earlier and persists for longer. Such changes will not take place overnight, but by encouraging greater entrepreneurial activity through initiatives linking schools and the private sector and challenging prevailing norms relating to employment and success.
• Support smaller firms by encouraging owners to grow up rather than cash out – The final point encompasses a number of factors and will necessitate a cultural shift as well as increasing the availability of support on offer to SMEs. It remains the case that many owners of successful UK businesses find it preferable to sell their firm to a larger competitor rather than grow it themselves. If the UK is to give rise to new internationally successful firms this attitude must be challenged, and entrepreneurs given the incentives they need to go it alone.
Writing in the report, Gordon Birtwistle MP (Apprenticeship Ambassador to Business and Chair of the Liberal Democrat Party Committee on Business, Innovation and Skills), said:
“The Dods Innovation Panel events have been a fantastic opportunity for me and my colleagues,
as well as individuals from key partner organisations, to enthusiastically discuss the need for the
UK to remain at the forefront of industry internationally and remain competitive.
Manufacturing is an issue close to my heart. It is clear that we in the UK must move forward with vision and always be striving for further development and innovation. After the worse recession for a generation, Britain is finally turning a corner.
We are seeing signs of growth, and now it is the time to turn our attention to a key component of the recovery: skills and talent. As it stands, we are faced with an acute lack of skills within the economy. The issue is whether we have equipped future generations with the right skills to help Britain grow.”
Andrew Miller MP, Chairman of Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee, said:
“By bringing together key industry players, academics and politicians, the panel has drawn on the diverse expertise and experiences of participants to provide a truly fresh, cross-sector and cross-party perspective on what is needed to propel the UK higher up the league tables on international competitiveness in innovation, research and development, and skills.
The second activity of equal importance has stimulated some fresh thinking through the “We Made It!”
competition involving young people up and down the country. Both have an important role in helping to shape the way in which the nation sees the importance of manufacturing. The information revolution has had an enormous impact on the world, but for too long there was a belief that this
replaced manufacturing.
The fact is that we need both, we need to keep up with the knowledge economy and we need to make the next generation of high tech products that will further drive that economy. In my own constituency, the opening of a Fab Lab with the support of the Manufacturing Institute has helped cement this concept into the community”.