Memorandum 80
Supplementary submission from The Royal
Society
Britain has a great tradition in science, research
and engineering. We must continue to build on this. We cannot
predict the 21st century counterparts of quantum theory, the double
helix or the computer, or where the great thinkers, innovators
and entrepreneurs of the future will get their formative training
and inspiration. But one thing seems certain: unless we as a nation
continue to get smarter, we will get poorer. The UK's relative
standing will fall unless more technologies and innovations originate
and are exploited here in the UK.
We don't always know where the benefits of research
will come from, or how long it will take for them to manifest.
Even in medicine, where research is often highly-targeted, the
lag between scientific research and health benefit can be anywhere
from 10-25 years. [222]
In other areas of science, it can be decades before direct benefits
are realised.[223]
To maximise the breadth and depth of our scientific
potential, we therefore need to support research capacity across
the full range of disciplines. We must balance the need to invest
in world-class individuals,[224]
with the need to invest in world-class research infrastructure
and established centres of excellence. We must also ensure that
the UK continues to attract and retain the best researchers from
around the world to support value-added partnerships.
In the clusters that our best universities have
built around them, talent attracts talent (and big and small companies
too). There is a symbiosis between applied and pure science—or
as former Royal Society President, George Porter, averred, that
there were two kinds of science: applied and not yet applied.
The scale of the challenges we face as a society
and economy call for closer alignment of research with objectives
and better processes for creating products and services from ideas.
In general, there is a funding gap from the point where research
ideas move out of universities through to their becoming commercially
ready technologies that industry sees as sufficiently risk free
to take on. Translational research bridges the gap between pure
research and applied research and much has been achieved, particularly
in the biomedical fields, to improve this transition. However,
the bridge between applied research and commercially exploitable
products and services is still weak.
A prerequisite for potential investors in all
sectors is clarity, stability and certainty to allow a proper
assessment of risk and potential return on investment. Government
must set a clear, well-communicated policy and regulatory framework
that promotes investment. There should be a cross-departmental
focus on identifying and addressing barriers and perceptions that
could deter investment, especially in new and emerging markets.
Government procurement has an important role to play in speeding
the adoption of new technological solutions. The tendency is for
Government and public sector procurement to specify lowest-cost
solutions; however, there is an opportunity for public expenditure
to be used to stimulate innovation research and innovation, increase
the flow of opportunity for leading-edge SMEs, and help promote
emerging technologies.
It is essential that innovation is understood
broadly, in line with last year's Innovation Nation White
Paper, which stressed the importance of taking a holistic view
of innovation, and highlighted how the UK excels at "hidden
innovation" in its leading services sectors and creative
industries. The UK will have to compete by developing new products
and services, discovering new ways of doing business, encouraging
innovation in its public sector and public services, and drawing
more effectively on the whole of the research base: natural sciences,
engineering, the humanities and social sciences.
The Royal Society believes is it desirable to
focus investment on specific sectors or technologies relevant
to major challenges we face In the UK and globally. Indeed we
believe that, for example, the needs of a low-carbon economy are
worth of such targeted investment—areas such as plastics
electronics, high performance batteries, green chemistry etc.
However, we would be concerned if the balance within the ring-fenced
science budget were to shift away from the responsive mode of
funding the most excellent research from across all areas. In
assessing our position on these subjects, we have considered implemented
policies rather than the content of Ministerial speeches.
April 2009
222 Medical Research: What's it worth? Estimating the
economic benefits from medical research in the UK, report for
the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the Academy
of Medical Sciences, November 2008. Back
223
Ben R Martin and Puay Tang, The benefits from publicly funded
research, SPRU working paper 161, June 2007. Back
224
K Pavitt, What makes basic research economically useful?
Research Policy 20 (1991), pp 109-119. Back
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