Memorandum submitted by the Motorsport
Industry Association (MIA)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
— The global motorsport industry is predominantly
based in the UK's Motorsport Valley®—a unique business
cluster which, as a result of investing over 30% of turnover in
research and development, is a significant source of value-added
in the UK economy. The brand of "Motorsport" serves
as a key motivator for encouraging individuals to pursue STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) courses at
school, college and University.
— Sailing, equestrianism and motorsport
are rare examples of sporting disciplines which make use of a
substantial supporting industry to deliver competition success.
The motorsport-induced phenomena of the competitive engineer is
a significant driver of manufacturing innovation—innovation
which is being increasingly embraced by four separate High Performance
Engineering (HPE) customer groups—Defence, Marine, Aerospace
and Automotive.
— Over the past decade, successes within
the industry and sport have tended to have been met with an air
of complacency from HMG. To make it easier for HMG to interact
with motorsport bodies, the Motorsport Alliance—comprising
the Motor Sports Association (MSA), Auto-Cycle Union (ACU) and
the MIA—was formed in July 2008. The Motorsport Alliance
exists to help co-ordinate and develop joint motorsport links
with DCMS (sport), BIS (industry) and Parliament as a whole.
INTRODUCTION TO
THE MIA
1. The MIA was founded in 1994 by executives
from the Motorsport, High Performance Engineering (HPE) and Tuning
industry to promote, protect, and provide a voice for these sectors
in the UK. It strives to secure long-term, repetitive and competitive
business advantage for its many members, and a strong, viable
future for the Industry as a whole.
2. The MIA is now the leading global trade
association for these sectors, co-ordinating services from its
international HQ at Stoneleigh Park, near Warwick. It serves over
360 corporate members who, as a group, annually and globally transact
over £3.5 billion in Motorsport and HPE business—employing
some 15-18,000 individuals.
3. The MIA is a not-for-profit private company,
owned by its industry members and limited by guarantee. Its Committee
and Directors are elected by its membership and supported by a
full time Chief Executive and staff. Any surpluses generated are
re-invested into programmes which improve the wider industry and
further develop its members' businesses.
4. The MIA is recognised by UK Trade &
Investment (UKTI) as the only Accredited Trade Organisation (ATO)
for the Motorsport, Performance Engineering and Tuning sectors.
UKTI and the MIA enjoy a healthy working relationship which sees
several International Business Development Visits and Inward Missions
take place each year—this support is important for British
motorsport SMEs, who derive over 60% of annual turnover from international
trade. The MIA has overseas offices in Detroit and Atlanta, USA.
5. The MIA acts as Joint-Secretary of the
All Party Parliamentary Motor Group, alongside the SMMT and The
RAC Foundation.
SECTION A: THE
ROLE OF
MOTORSPORT IN
THE WIDER
ECONOMY
6. Motorsport Valley®, in the UK, is
a world-class engineering business cluster of innovative SMEs
delivering HPE solutions to four primary customer groups—Defence,
Marine, Aerospace and Automotive.
7. These customers use the "Motorsport
Industry" to design, develop and manufacture world-beating
innovative solutions and prototypes including chassis, materials,
electronics, engines, transmissions, brakes, telemetry and suspension
components. The industry relies upon the proven skills and can-do
approach of British competitive engineers who, season after season,
incrementally improve components to deliver identifiable advantage
and ongoing success on the race track. "Competitive Engineering"
is the cornerstone of these successful global small businesses.
These businesses have developed a unique ability to use sporting
endeavour and entertainment as a catalyst for engineering and
manufacturing advances, subsequently of real value to other HPE
customer groups.
8. Some 4,500 UK SMEs are involved in motorsport,
HPE and supporting services, with annual sales exceeding £6
billion, of which more than £3.6 billion (60%) is exported.
In the sole National Survey of this industry in 2000, these SMEs
supported 38,000 full time jobs (including 25,000 engineers).
Service companies—rights exploitation, IP management, race
track and event management, public relations, marketing, sponsorship,
finance, legal, freight, logistics, insurance etc.—account
for approximately ?1.7 billion (30%) of the annual industry total.
9. Unlike the Olympics and World Football,
the commercial rights for Formula One (F1), World Rally Championship
(WRC) and other World Motorsport Championships/series are operated
by UK companies based in London (and not Switzerland!).
10. Internationally, Motorsport Valley is
recognised as a globally significant, high-tech business cluster
akin to that of California's Silicon Valley and the Hollywood
film industry. The Valley attracts international buyers and
investors seeking competitive advantage from race-proven engineering
research, development and prototyping capabilities. When advising
HMG in 1998, the renowned economic development academic, Professor
Michael Porter of Harvard Business School, described the UK's
motorsport industry as "the jewel in the crown of British
engineering." Many countries envy the success of this
high value-added industry cluster and have active Government programmes
to try and capture a share—often initiated by investment
in hosting an F1 race. Such moves represent a genuine and constant
threat to the leadership position enjoyed by the UK—an economic
asset which requires less complacency and better awareness and
active appreciation from HMG.
11. Importantly, over 30% of sales revenues
are re-invested in R&D by UK motorsport SMEs—double
that of the UK's Pharmaceutical and IT sectors, and ten times
that of the automotive industry.
12. Motorsport Valley is recognised as the
global centre of excellence for high performance automotive engineering,
and most major automotive manufacturers maintain close links:
The list is endless—Mercedes, Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Renault,
Honda, Aston Martin, Ferrari, General Motors, Seat and BMW, amongst
many others. The high-profile success of F1, WRC and Sports Car
racing (which enjoy vast worldwide television audiences) sells
their automotive brands using a "sporting/technology"
theme. They use the UK motorsport industry's investment in advanced
technology, R&D and prototyping to aid rapid development of
new road vehicles—using motorsport as their real-life test-bed
and laboratory.
13. F1 is the technical (and most valuable)
pinnacle of global motor racing. In 2010, at least eight teams
(Brawn, Renault, McLaren Mercedes, Williams, Red Bull, Force India),
plus the new teams of Manor and Lotus, will be based in the UK—attracting
substantial international inward investment from sponsors and
technical partners. For interest, Toyota F1 is based in Germany;
Ferrari and Toro Rosso in Italy, Campos in Spain and USF1 in the
USA. Mercedes and Cosworth—both based in Northampton—will
supply half the engines used by the 2010 Formula One grid.
14. The much-outdated MIA National Survey
of Motorsport Engineering and Services (2000), explained the
nature and breadth of this UK industry as follows:
— The UK motorsport engineering cluster
is a world-class exemplar of high technology, low volume, R&D
based manufacturing.
— 75% of the industry is located within
the RDA boundaries of AWM, EEDA, EMDA and SEEDA—the heartland
of the Motorsport Valley cluster.
— The industry is young and independent—three-quarters
of firms were established in the past twenty years and remain
independently-owned.
— The industry has enjoyed major sustained
growth in turnover and employment over the past decade.
— 66% of jobs are in motorsport engineering
disciplines—heavily dominated by full-time male employment.
15. In education, the brand of "Motorsport"
was first used in 1998 by Swansea Institute (now Swansea Metropolitan
University) to attract students to its struggling automotive engineering
courses—through its introduction of a BSc in Motorsport
Engineering and Management. Other institutions were swift to realise
the aspirational power of the brand and its attraction to undergraduate
engineers. As a result, 28 Universities, some 140 Further Education
colleges, and hundreds of schools, now offer "motorsport
engineering" programmes in the UK.
16. Each year, "Motorsport" encourages
and motivates thousands of young people to take up STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects at school and
college. This latent power of motorsport should be more fully
embraced by HMG—as an example, the USA uses NASA to similar
positive effect. Unfortunately, whilst successfully helping educators
enrol the numbers of students (from UK and overseas) required
by current Government policies, the real quality of the motorsport
educational provision is deemed by UK employers to be generally
poor and not serving the industry well.
SECTION B: THE
ROLE OF
SMES IN
THE SUPPLY
CHAIN SUPPORTING
THE MOTORSPORT
INDUSTRY
17. The industry is composed virtually entirely
of SMEs—half being engaged in HPE and the others in support
services—their average size being 25 employees with annual
sales of under £4 million.
18. Most of these specialists secure their
success by working in partnership with other complementary SMEs
to meet customer demands. This has created a very close-knit and
co-dependent community—where competitive innovation exists
alongside close cooperation to deliver world-class solutions on
time.
19. The motorsport industry is incorrectly
regarded, by some, as being within the "UK Automotive Industry"—yet
it is not and differs in many significant ways:
20. Most notable is the wide, flat nature
of the supply-chain—with no Tier 1, 2, 3 suppliers. Motorsport
suppliers are characterised by their ability to react quickly
and flexibly, designing and manufacturing innovative high-tech
solutions, with high value-added and extremely short production
runs. As an example, a successful transmission or engine manufacturer
might only produce 100-200 complete engines or gearboxes in a
year.
21. This accelerated, competition-driven,
problem-solving capability—where time and speed of delivery
has real value—is increasingly attractive to other sectors,
such as Aerospace, Defence and Marine. They seek new suppliers
who can outperform their traditional supplier base and are increasingly
turning to motorsport companies to meet their requirements. Unlike
conventional suppliers, motorsport businesses do not merely produce/manufacture—they
focus on fit-for-purpose innovation, where a component produced
this week performs better than one made last week.
22. Motorsport SMEs are "born global"—instinctively
and immediately embracing international trade. The USA is, by
far, the largest overseas national market, with NASCAR and Indy
Racing League teams being the major customers. Mainland Europe—primarily
Germany, France and Italy—comprises the second largest market.
Indeed, hardly any motorsport event occurs, anywhere in the world,
without some connection to UK motorsport services or engineering—due,
in no small part, to the help of MIA and UKTI Business Development
Visits.
SECTION C: THE
IMPACT OF
THE RECESSION
ON THE
MOTORSPORT INDUSTRY
(AND ITS
SMES)
23. The industry has felt the chill wind
of the economic downturn since 2008. The financial services sector
had become a major source of sponsorship over recent years but
its demise has meant contracts have not been renewed. Additionally,
automotive manufacturers have significantly reduced their advertising
and marketing spend. Interestingly, however, they have not reduced
their R&D spend—which continues to support motorsport
activities where "sales" are the not the primary reason
for motorsport involvement.
24. The Fédération de L'Automobile
(FIA) has encouraged significant cost cuts in F1 and other motorsport
series. This mandate from the world sporting governing body is
particularly damaging to the UK, which suffers a disproportionate
share of these reductions, being major F1 suppliers when compared
to other European nations.
25. The FIA's plans will significantly reduce
UK employment levels—some F1 teams anticipate staff levels
will be reduced by up to 50%. With a knock-on effect on suppliers,
the net effect could result in over 1,000 job losses in relation
to just F1 in the UK. This is particularly worrying to regional
economic plans, most suppliers being in rural locations and of
unusually high average annual value.
26. The release of a large number of experienced
and well-qualified engineers into a jobs market already swollen
by supply chain downsizing (and newly-qualified graduates from
the 28 motorsport engineering Universities), has raised unemployment
to unheard of levels in this normally dynamic sector.
27. The MIA recognised this threat to the
UK's Motorsport Valley global leadership and moved quickly, in
the absence of any Government activity, despite requests to the
now, thankfully, defunct Motorsport Development UK (MDUK). The
MIA encouraged specialist Motorsport Recruitment companies to
help reabsorb these skilled engineers into smaller, component-based
SMEs and other HPE industries (eg Aerospace, Defence and Marine).
With Government support, the MIA could co-ordinate this activity
and keep these highly-skilled world-class engineers within Motorsport
Valley—rather than allowing them to move overseas, where
their skills are in high demand and would, over a period of time,
be used to create a competitor for the UK.
28. Most UK motorsport businesses have weathered
the recession well. They conventionally run very lean, hiring
specialists at times of high demand. Optimism and resilience are
two essentials in motorsport success—these attributes will
help these businesses gain strength and grow during this period.
29. The MIA has enjoyed a notable increase
in membership since the beginning of the economic downturn—many
SMEs seeing attack as the best form of defence. Several factors
have been notable:
— Working together as a community has bought
added security to businesses—MIA business to business events
enable industry insiders to meet each other face-to-face and share
business opportunities and developments.
— Sterling's weakness against other currencies
has meant UK-manufactured parts are currently more competitive
than usual in international markets. The MIA, with support from
UKTI, leads overseas programmes to secure new business.
— The MIA has helped companies diversify—with
Motorsport to Defence and Motorsport to Marine programmes delivering
tangible new business.
30. The Motorsport to Defence (M2D) Initiative
was launched in 2007 in response to the challenge to bring motorsport
companies to the defence sector—issued by Lord Drayson (then
Minister for Procurement at the Ministry of Defence) and Lord
Astor of Hever, Shadow Defence Minister (Honorary President of
the MIA). Fully aware of the advanced engineering skills involved
in designing racing vehicles which can attain high levels of performance
and reliability over variable terrain whilst enduring extremes
of temperature and adverse climatic conditions, both Parliamentarians
were convinced of the synergies which exist between the Motorsport
and Defence industries.
31. With no Government financial support
whatsoever—funding coming from industry alone—the
MIA has facilitated profitable and beneficial interaction between
the two industries. This has enabled the defence sector to engage
new suppliers with novel solutions to vital engineering problems,
and motorsport companies to enjoy less seasonally-variable revenue
streams.
32. The MIA's M2D initiative has seen motorsport-derived
radiators, charge coolers, gearboxes, brakes, fuel tanks, telemetry,
suspension components and seals improve defence land vehicles—to
the benefit of troops in the field. Motorsport's ability to quickly
design new parts and deliver low-volume production-runs has met
Urgent Operational Requirements (UORs) issued by commanders in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
33. Similarly, the MIA's Motorsport to Marine
Initiative has introduced motorsport companies to the UK marine
industry. These businesses are finding many synergies not just
with Power Boat Racing, but also Americas' Cup, Olympic yachting
and the RNLI's rescue boats, for example.
34. Government financial support to further grow
these cross-sector initiatives would widen their impact—to
the benefit of British troops in action, the UK marine sector
and, most importantly, improve the employment situation in this
industry to offset the cuts outlined above.
SECTION D: INNOVATION
AND THE
MOTORSPORT INDUSTRY
What barriers are there to further innovation
in the Motorsport sector and what can be done to overcome them?
35. Endless innovation is the stock-in-trade
of this proven world-class and world-beating industry—without
innovation there is simply no motorsport business. Competitive
advantage is not gained purely by innovating, but by innovating
faster, and more continuously, than a competitor.
36. As a result, the motorsport industry's
use of the HMRC R&D Tax Credits scheme is vital, regular and
extensive. This excellent scheme has proven, demonstrably, to
help SMEs to maintain their high level of annual R&D spend
(at more than 30% of sales revenue). This industry's use of R&D
Tax Credits is totally in line with the scheme's original intention
which encourages SMEs to invest more in innovation for competitive
advantage—and it is working.
37. The Industry has heard rumours of threats
to the R&D Tax Credits scheme—perhaps HMG perceives
misuse/over-use of the scheme by larger companies and corporations.
In many cases, the cash flow advantages of these credits have
kept small businesses alive and innovating during the recession.
For example, many are now actively developing low carbon technologies
to transfer into the mainstream automotive sector at a later date.
The MIA would not wish to see this scheme withdrawn, since it
has proved to be highly successful. In fact, the MIA requests
that the R&D Tax Credits Scheme be urgently improved and enhanced
for SMEs—or specific grants be made more readily available
as part of quantitative easing.
What steps can be taken to encourage the application
of technology development in the Motorsport Sector to create new
designs, products and process in other industries?
38. Motorsport has a massive capability—within
its community of knowledge and skills—which supports its
diverse, high-tech industry. There is an urgent need for cross-sector
stakeholders, the Government, and wider UK industry to better
understand the largely hidden and under-exploited value of this
sector.
39. Motorsport companies have a problem-solving
capability, working within unique time parameters, which offers
a real-time laboratory in which innovative solutions will be found
and developed. As previously mentioned, the industry has already
helped to solve UOR problems in Defence; reduce the weight of
airliners through the advanced use composite parts in Aerospace;
and introduced new gearbox and jointing technologies to the Marine
market.
40. Motorsport has pioneered rapid development
of energy-efficient and clean-burn engines, alternative fuels
and power sources. Following its publication of a Green Agenda
for Motorsport in 2001, the MIA took the international lead
by organising Cleaner Racing Conferences in the world's
leading motorsport markets, with support from UKTI. Disappointingly,
with such a high profile and internationally-recognised agenda
and capability, BIS-sponsored organisations such as the Technology
Strategy Board (TSB), Low Carbon initiatives and the New Automotive
Innovation and Growth Team (NAIGT) have failed to adequately engage
with the UK motorsport industry or its trade association.
41. For example, the recent NAIGT report
identified a need for "exciting and motivational prototype
demonstrators" for low carbon vehicles. UK motorsport companies
are perfectly positioned to deliver these requirements—some
already do—yet little or no engagement has occurred. As
motorsport's rule makers lay down new "Green" legislation
which rewards efficiency, so innovative solutions are being developed
by motorsport engineers and tested on the race track in motorcycles
and cars. Validation of Green technologies through on-track success
will accelerate the technology's inclusion on road-going vehicles
and—if this sector is fully embraced—provide a source
of commercial competitive advantage for the wider UK automotive
industry.
42. Currently, HMG provides support and
financial assistance essentially through the TSB and the Small
Business Research Initiative. Motorsport, by default, works within
a closed, focussed and highly competitive environment—lack
of engagement with this business community is a weakness. There
is an urgent need to review all relevant national and regional
initiatives which fall under the banner of "Innovation"
(identification, encouragement, exploitation, technology transfer)
so that full benefit is derived from, and by, this sector—without
duplication of effort or resources.
43. The MIA is keen to encourage closer
partnerships and co-ordination to use—to the fullest extent—this
unique British resource and source of competitive advantage. If
harnessed more enthusiastically by the wider UK automotive sector,
this would deliver reductions in CO2 output in a shorter timeframe
than at present.
SECTION E: THE
EFFECTIVENESS OF
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
IN SUPPORTING
THE MOTORSPORT
INDUSTRY
44. The HMRC R&D Tax Credits scheme
has been dealt with in the previous section. This scheme is valuable
and of vital importance to the industry's future—the MIA
wishes to see it improved and enhanced to benefit innovative SMEs.
International Trade Support
45. The support of UKTI for exporters is
critical for the UK motorsport HPE industry and, in many areas,
UKTI work continues to serve the sector well. The MIA is the Accredited
Trade Organisation for the Motorsport, HPE and Tuning sectors,
and it administers UKTI Tradeshow Access Program (TAP) applications.
TAP grants provide the industry with numerous opportunities to
attend overseas tradeshows and open up new markets. The already
excellent working relationship between UKTI and the MIA should
be developed to ensure that Motorsport Valley continues to be
actively promoted and publicised for inward investment.
46. Recently, however, the steady redirection
of funds into the RDAs has weakened the sector-focussed approach
which was so successful in the past. The UKTI funds made available
through experienced and representative trade associations are
constantly reducing, the result being a significantly negative
effect on SMEs' trade performance in overseas markets.
47. RDAs continually compete with one another,
confusing SMEs and failing to provide sector-relevant experience
or advice. The result is a poor return on UKTI investment—yet
the experiment continues to the detriment of UK SME international
performance. These disjointed and dissipated RDA/UKTI efforts
have to be addressed: The MIA regularly encounters firms being
unable to take advantage of well-conceived Government schemes,
simply because they are a mile or two beyond the bounds of a particular
RDA.
48. Regional international business development
activity within the Motorsport sector, should it remain necessary,
must be co-ordinated and harnessed by a national UKTI/MIA partnership.
The MIA would like to see an external review of this aspect of
UKTI funding policy and strategy—comparing the RDAs' current
efforts with a well-researched option provided by UKTI's existing
Accredited Trade Organisations.
"Green" Low-Carbon Technologies and
Motorsport
49. In 2000, the MIA was the initiator of
the successful Energy Efficient Motor Sport (EEMS) concept. It
continues to be in a unique position to deliver a strategy and
co-ordinate the industry to accelerate the progress of low-carbon
and CO2 reduction in motorsport, to the benefit of the wider UK
automotive industry.
50. There is an urgent need to bring together
current low-carbon stakeholders and the motorsport industry to
deliver a "joined up" strategy with Government support.
These stakeholders include HMG and appropriate departments/agencies,
OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), motorsport governing
bodies, academia and research facilities.
51. In 2002, the MIA, with the then DTI,
engaged the UK motorsport industry to create a Feasibility Study—based
on input from leaders in energy efficiency development in motorsport.
This study explained how motorsport could embrace energy efficiency
to benefit the future of the UK automotive industry. It proposed
ways in which such concepts could be adopted in motorsport—to
popularise low-carbon/energy efficiency and promote it to the
public in an exciting manner.
52. The MIA's inaugural and successful Clean
Racing Conference, was held in Birmingham in October 2003 and
has become an annual fixture since then. It has also delivered
this message, on behalf of UK industry, by organising other Clean
Racing conferences in Sebring, Long Beach and Detroit in the USA
and Seoul in South Korea—all supported by UKTI.
53. Since 2004, many motorsport projects
have showcased low-carbon solutions: Bio-diesel wins at Le Mans;
100% ethanol wins the Indy 500; zero-emission TTxGP competition
at the Isle of Man motorcycle race; hybrid engines in national
rallies; reduced emissions in Touring Cars; and Kinetic Energy
Recovery Systems (KERS) wins in F1; amongst others. These successes
prove that sporting competitiveness with low-carbon credentials
encourages a positive and rapid change in public perception.
54. The MDUK-led EEMS programme (2004-09)
failed to benefit from extensive motorsport industry co-ordination
and progress. Restricted by lack of engagement with the MIA's
industry network, there remains an absence of an all-embracing
energy efficient strategy for the UK motorsport industry. Now
that MDUK has closed, there is a fresh opportunity for HMG to
actively engage directly with the industry on this vital issue
of low-carbon technologies.
Motorsport Development UK (MDUK)
55. Following the DTI's Motorsport Competitiveness
Panel Review, it chose to set up Motorsport Development UK (MDUK)
to administer funding and delivery of the Panel's recommendations.
56. Most initiatives on MDUK's agenda were
originally proposed by proactive members of the MIA—who
had delivered to the DTI their own Cluster Development Strategy
in 2002. This strategy secured written commitments of over
£10 million of cash and in-kind industry support, covering
the following:
— Interaction and collaboration.
— Motorsport Valley promotion.
— Education and Skills Development:
— Human Resources services.
57. Despite its Industry Advisory Panel's
insistence that any programme must be "industry-led",
the DTI failed to honour this vital requirement. The consequence
was an ongoing lack of vision, relevance and industry understanding
of the original proposals. The rigid—and seemingly needless—insistence
that all project management and delivery be contracted to a "remote-from-industry"
third party, resulted in poor delivery and development of the
required aims.
58. Nowhere was this failure more apparent
than in the attempts to co-ordinate and improve the quality of
national Motorsport Education and Skills provision: MDUK decided
to deliver a "Motorsport Academy" through Carter and
Carter plc, completely ignoring the value of working with the
already established MIA-led Motorsport Employers Group (MEG) and
Motorsport Educators Forum (MEF). Failing to engage appropriately
with these powerful influencers—with a resulting lack of
cohesive networks—meant that quality assurance and accreditation
programmes were fragmented, and failed to win the support of stakeholders.
SECTION F: HOW
TO MAINTAIN
THE UK'S
EXCELLENCE IN
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
IN AUTOMOTIVE
ENGINEERING, AND
HOW TO
EXTEND RELATIONSHIPS
BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES
AND BUSINESS
STILL FURTHER
59. The UK motorsport industry has a well-proven
and deserved reputation for applying innovation in an efficient
and successful commercial manner. However, motorsport SMEs are
no different from many other UK SMEs in showing a historic reticence
to engage with academic research to any great degree. Many "motorsport
reasons" are given including: Time-constraints and speed
to market; development being of more practical and immediate commercial
value than research; lack of long-term engineering strategy in
the sport's rules; limited personnel available to maintain ongoing
links, and so on. There are few, but significant, exceptions—led
by Imperial College, Cranfield, Southampton, Warwick and Cambridge
Universities.
60. This industry relies mostly on major
corporations/organisations and academia for the undertaking of
"blue sky" research. UK F1 teams benefit from technical
partnerships with huge multi-national organisations: Innovative
SMEs capture these outcomes and act as rapid developers/prototypers
in a process of continuous development and improvement—making
the solutions fit-for-purpose within a high performance context.
It would possibly be of benefit for SMEs to better engage with
academic research, but it is hard for individual research institutions
to overcome the understandable barriers mentioned above.
61. Connections between the industry and
academia were significantly improved when the MIA helped to create
the world's first degree course in Motorsport Engineering &
Design in 1998, delivered by Swansea Institute (now Swansea Metropolitan
University). SMEs required more relevantly-qualified graduates,
and curricula has since been introduced by an increasing number
of Higher Education (for Engineers) and Further Education (for
Technicians) Institutions. Certainly this has helped to foster
closer links between Universities and the industry, albeit mostly
in the educational field—but this opens the way for research
dialogue.
62. An example would be the Institute of
Mechanical Engineers' (IMechE) Formula Student educational programme.
Now in its 12th year, Formula Student 2009 featured entries from
38 UK Universities, most of which had developed their cars in
partnership with UK-based motorsport businesses. This working
relationship between University Student Teams and the industry
sets a model to which other motorsport engineering education programmes
must aspire.
63. The proliferation of Motorsport-based
curricula proves the significant appeal and positive power which
the brand "Motorsport" has to attract young people into
education and training. This recent phenomena has enormous potential
for the wider engineering sector in the UK—as the recruitment
figures within those institutions delivering motorsport courses
show: Motorsport has proven to be a very "cool" engineering
subject to study. Whilst only 30-40% of students find employment
in the motorsport industry, the remainder find work in other engineering
sectors.
64. The failure of the MDUK Motorsport Academy
to deliver the requested "Motorsport Industry Recognition
of Academic Institutions" has led to further deterioration
of this situation. Employers require the MIA to work with HMG
to confirm which education providers are currently rated as the
most "fit-for- purpose" when it comes to providing graduates
with the skills required by this specialist sector. Only once
this is achieved (and the credibility of, and from, both sides
is accepted) will the opportunity for real engagement between
University, Educator and Industry, follow.
65. Employers and Educators should work
more closely to ensure relevance and quality in the Motorsport
Engineering educational provision, through existing MIA-organised
specialist groups: The Motorsport Employers Group (MEG) and the
Motorsport Educators Forum (MEF).
66. The measurement of success must be embraced
by the appropriate National Occupational Standards, and once the
quality of content and measurement has been established, then
the UK—as global leader in this influential sector—can
market such standards globally. This will better serve a British
workforce which is mobile and delivers its knowledge and skills
to the international industry and sport. The original request
from employers to MDUK was to introduce, for the sector, National
Occupational Standards and Qualifications. This request remains
unfulfilled (even after six years), making employers' assessment
of prospective employees unnecessarily difficult.
67. The MIA has asked the representative
Sector Skills Council—SEMTA—(working with Automotive
Skills) to address this situation with some urgency. So far, this
has not yielded any response.
SECTION G: ANY
OTHER VIEWS
WHICH STAKEHOLDERS
THINK THE
COMMITTEE SHOULD
BE AWARE
OF
Research Required
68. There is an urgent need for updated
national economic research into this UK industry. The last research
report was delivered by the MIA (with support from UKTI, DTI,
and the Regions) in 2000—some 10 years ago. Ministers and
Departments regularly rely on these (significantly outdated),
figures in their answers and speeches—yet they are undoubtedly
increasingly inaccurate figures. The MIA has raised this in Parliament,
to Departments and MDUK, regularly over the past 10 years—most
recently in the two Motorsport-related debates in the House of
Lords,[20]
led by Lord Astor of Hever—specifically requiring a response
from Baroness Vadera. No action or funding has been approved and
all still remain in the dark. It is hard to imagine any other
country so consistently ignoring such a vibrant and innovative
cluster and not wishing to understand and celebrate its growing
success.
69. With funding from various sources including
RDAs, Governmental Departments and the industry itself, the MIA
suggests that another National Survey of Motorsport Engineering
and Services is conducted—following the same methodology
as before. Such a survey and subsequent report would provide HMG,
RDAs, the industry, and its trade association, with an understanding
of how this high value-added industry cluster has performed over
the last decade. Up-to-date figures would also help key stakeholders
to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
associated with the UK's motorsport industry.
The Motorsport Alliance
70. The sport and industry are truly interdependent,
in that the sport relies on support from engineering businesses.
Recently, the two governing bodies of UK motorsport—the
MSA (Motor Sports Association—for four wheels) and ACU (Auto-Cycle
Union—for two-wheels)—joined with the MIA to form
the "Motorsport Alliance". This unique approach allows
all of motorsport to speak with one voice to Government, as and
when appropriate or required. The Motorsport Alliance exists to
help co-ordinate and develop joint motorsport links with DCMS
(sport), BIS (industry) and Parliament as a whole.
25 September 2009
9 July 2009—Topical Debate: UK Manufacturing
20 23 April 2009-Question for Short Debate tabled By
Lord Astor of Hever DL: To ask Her Majesty's Government what
assistance they will give to enable the British Formula 1 Grand
Prix to continue. Back
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