Written evidence submitted by the National
Physical Laboratory (NPL) (TIC 11)
SUMMARY OF
OUR KEY
POINTS
1. We welcome this inquiry and would like to make
the following key points:
(i.) We welcome the recognition from both the
Hauser and Dyson reviews of the importance of Applied or Translational
Research work, as this area (typically covering Technology Readiness
Levels 4 to 6[5])
has received little investment in the UK.
(ii.) The Fraunhofer Institutes have evolved
to fulfil a particular role in Germany and we believe it is neither
sensible nor affordable to suppose that the concept can be imported
directly into the UK. Rather, consideration needs to be given
to how the applied research infrastructure that is already in
place in the UK might be utilised more fully for Fraunhofer-type
purposes.
(iii). The UK infrastructure of public sector
research establishments (PSREs) and technology centres is not
effectively coordinated: each PSRE and technology centre develops
a forward strategy in partnership with its parent department or
agency, but this is done largely in isolation from other centres.
There are inefficiencies, duplication and gaps in the UK system
in terms of investment in specialist facilities and expert manpower.
This has resulted in inefficient utilisation and inconsistent
achievement of economic and scientific impact. A review - to include
the purpose and scope of the PSREs and their relationship to the
broader community of independent research and technology organisations
(RTOs) and technology centres - is long overdue.
(iv.) The review should consider whether the
UK's existing infrastructure of publicly-funded centres could
be condensed into a smaller number of national laboratories, exploiting
more fully their unique facilities, expertise and reputations.
(v.) The UK must make the most of its existing
national technology assets which means:
- The government considering PSREs and technology
centres as part of a collective national infrastructure, requiring
strategic management;
- This national infrastructure providing industry
with access to an essential range of world-leading specialist
facilities, expertise, advice and skills training;
- That effective collaboration is realised with
academia, industry (notably small and medium sized enterprises);
- Ensuring that the ring fence around Research
Council budgets does not create a barrier to collaboration with
and exploitation through other government-sponsored R&D programmes;
- PSREs, RTOs and technology centres are incentivised,
like the Fraunhofer Institutes, to attract income from industry;
- Government working with PSREs, RTOs and technology
centres to make it easier for SMEs to access these assets;
- PSREs such as NPL, with a horizontally-themed
enabling capability (advanced measurement and standards in the
case of NPL) funded appropriately to support the new Technology
and Innovation Centres.
ABOUT NPL
2. The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is
a leading UK research establishment with an annual turnover of
£71 million and a staff of 620. It is the largest science
asset directly owned by BIS and occupies a unique position as
the UK's national measurement institute sitting at the
intersection between scientific discovery and real world application.
Although sponsored by BIS, NPL undertakes work for nearly half
the government departments, notably Defra, DECC, MoD, DH. As such
its purpose and function have many of the characteristics of the
German Fraunhofer model. Its expertise and original research underpin
the quality of life, innovation and competitiveness for UK citizens
and business:
- NPL provides companies with access to world-leading
technical expertise and scientific facilities, inspiring the absolute
confidence required to realise competitive advantage from the
use of new materials, techniques and technologies;
- NPL expertise and services are crucial in a wide
range of social applications - helping to save lives, protect
the environment and enable citizens to feel safe and secure. Support
in areas such as the development of advanced medical treatments
and environmental monitoring helps secure a better quality of
life for all;
- NPL develops and maintains the nation's primary
measurement standards, supporting an infrastructure of traceable
measurement throughout the UK and the world, to ensure accuracy
and consistency;
- NPL has a world-class reputation for the quality
of its science and an unparalleled record in demonstrating innovation
and industrial relevance (the value of its measurement work to
UK GDP has been estimated at £2 billion per annum);
- Whilst a key strategic asset for government,
NPL is operated by Serco through a "government-owned, contractor-operated"
(GoCo) model. This has realised both significant efficiencies
of operation and improved outputs and impact (with non-core revenue
secured competitively in commercial markets tripling since 2004).
Question 1. What is the Fraunhofer model and would
it be applicable to the UK?
3. The Fraunhofer Institutes are a network of
application-oriented research institutes which, in the German
science and technology support infrastructure, bridge the development
gap between university-based research and industrial exploitation.
Their mission is to "promote and undertake applied research
in an international context, of direct utility to private and
public enterprise and of wide benefit to society as a whole".
They "help to reinforce the competitive strength of the economy
in their region, throughout Germany and in Europe".
4. Data published on their own website show that
there are 59 institutes with 17,000 staff and a €1,600 million
annual research budget. One-third of this budget is institutional
funding from the German federal and Länder governments (not
tied to specific research objectives) and the other two-thirds
is contract research income from a mix of private and public sector
sources.
5. The Fraunhofer Institutes have evolved to
fulfil a particular role in Germany and we believe it is neither
sensible nor affordable to suppose that the concept can be imported
directly into the UK. Rather, consideration needs to be given
to how the applied research infrastructure that is already in
place in the UK might be utilised more fully for Fraunhofer-type
purposes.
Question 2. Are there existing Fraunhofer-type
research centres within the UK, and if so, are they effective?
6. In the UK the role of the Fraunhofer Institutes
(intermediate, translational research) is fulfilled, in part,
by a range of organisations including:
- Public sector research establishments (PSREs)
- variously underpinned by funding from government departments,
agencies and research councils - and with different statuses including
executive agency, trading fund, NDPB and GoCo;
- The broader community of RTOs - underpinned to
a greater or lesser extent by government contracts - and with
profit-distributing and non-profit (including member-based) statuses;
- Technology centres - founded and underpinned
by funding from public sources including, principally, the Regional
Development Agencies;
- Centres linked closely with universities and
involving a number of industrial partners.
7. These organisations have diverse missions
that may include elements of curiosity-led research and large-scale
process demonstration and prototype evaluation, as well as intermediate
Fraunhofer-type activities. All derive additional income, to some
extent, from the private and public sectors through the supply
of services and contract research and participation in collaborative
R&D.
8. The GoCo model at NPL has been particularly
effective at leveraging benefit from government-sponsored R&D
programmes into UK business. NPL has seen significant growth in
the uptake of knowledge generated from these government programmes
evidenced through a tripling of NPL non-core revenue over the
last 6 years (from £8 million in 2004 to £24 million
in 2010).
9. What is notable about the UK system is that is
uncoordinated: each PSRE and technology centre develops a forward
strategy in partnership with its parent department or agency,
but this is done largely in isolation from other centres. Furthermore,
such core parts of the nation's technical infrastructure are rarely
considered as strategic assets with long management chains between
Ministers and the organisation often in place. The only common
influence is the Technology Strategy Board through its widely-disseminated
strategy documents and its directed Calls for Proposals for collaborative
R&D. There are undoubtedly inefficiencies, duplication and
gaps in the UK system, in terms of investment in specialist facilities
and expert manpower. There has been no strategic review of PSREs
since the 1970s when the Rothschild customer-contractor principle
was introduced, and such a review - to include the purpose and
scope of the PSREs and their relationship to the broader community
of RTOs and technology centres - is long overdue.
10. The ring fence around Research Council grants
can be a barrier to collaboration with academic research and its
exploitation through PRSEs and RTOs. For example it hinders the
alignment of the government-sponsored programmes delivered by
NPL with those of the Research Councils.
Question 3. What other models are there for research
centres oriented toward applications and results?
11. The United States supports a range of "national
laboratories" underpinned by funding from federal sources,
notably the Departments of Energy and Defense. The National Physical
Laboratory's US counterpart is the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) which is an agency of the Department of
Commerce. These national laboratories have broad remits in nuclear
technology, renewable energy, health, defence, security, etc,
including a major commitment to application-oriented research,
and are variously managed by public and private sector consortia
or as government agencies. They are networked into universities,
companies and government. The US model has its own inefficiencies
but, like the Fraunhofer network, recognises the strategic value
of institutions with specialised (often nationally unique) facilities
and deep expertise, sustained and deployed on long-term programmes
on which both government and business can rely.
12. A review of UK PSREs should consider whether
the UK's existing infrastructure of publicly-funded centres could
be condensed into a smaller number of national laboratories, exploiting
more fully their unique facilities, expertise and reputations.
Question 4. Whose role should it be to coordinate
research in a UK-wide network of innovation centres?
13. At the strategic level, the Government Office
for Science has a key role to play, in ensuring that the broader
needs of government are served as well as the needs of business.
The network of Departmental Chief Scientific Advisors under Professor
Sir John Beddington's co-ordination, has been increasingly successful
in examining cross-cutting Departmental issues. The Department
of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is clearly well placed
to oversee the co-ordination of research across the network of
innovation centres. However, it is important that these activities
are seen at the heart of government. For example, the Director
of NPL's sister institute in the US - NIST - reports directly
into the Secretary for Commerce; NPL's Director reports through
six extra layers with its capabilities to meet the needs of government
rarely at the forefront of Department's thinking.
14. The Technology Strategy Board is the only organisation
currently positioned to undertake this role, through its links
across government and into the devolved administrations, regional
development agencies and research councils and as the principal
channel of government funding for innovation-related R&D.
Question 5. What effect would the introduction
of Fraunhofer-type institutes have on the work of Public Sector
Research Establishments and other existing research centres that
undertake Government sponsored research?
15. Currently the government plans to invest
£200m over four years in "a network of elite Technology
and Innovation Centres to drive growth in the UK's most high-tech
industries" which will "bridge the gap between universities
and businesses, helping to commercialise the outputs of Britain's
world-class research base". Our expectation is that there
may be a dozen or so (at most) of these centres.
16. Clearly this will not compete with the scale
and scope of the Fraunhofer Institutes and there will be a major
continuing role for the work of the PSREs, RTOs and other existing
centres, especially in application-oriented, translational research.
The new centres should not replicate the work of the PSREs and
RTOs. There may be a case for recognising some of the work conducted
by existing PSREs as Fraunhofer-type institutes. Thus, NPL (along
with its academic and industrial partners) is promoting its Centre
for Carbon Measurement as a key enabler to support the low carbon
economy and the continuation of London as the centre of the global
Carbon market (>£100B in 2009 and predicted to be >£1,000B
by 2020); such a Centre would build on the world-class applied
science, governance and technical infrastructure already in place
and is ideally placed to maximise the impact of additional funding
as a Technology Innovation Centre.
17. We believe that the UK must make the most
of its existing national technology assets which means:
- The government considering PSREs and technology
centres as part of a collective national infrastructure, requiring
strategic management;
- This national infrastructure providing industry
with access to an essential range of world-leading specialist
facilities, expertise, advice and skills training;
- PSREs, RTOs and technology centres incentivised,
like the Fraunhofer Institutes, to attract income from industry;
- Government working with PSREs, RTOs and technology
centres to make it easier for SMEs to access these assets;
- PSREs such as NPL, with their horizontally-themed
capability (measurement and standards in the case of NPL) funded
to support the new Technology and Innovation Centres;
- Stronger co-ordination and rationalisation of
technology centres to achieve significant efficiencies and critical
masses of world-leading applied research capabilities.
DECLARATION OF
INTEREST
18. NPL is managed on behalf of the Department
of Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) under the GoCo model
by NPL Management Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Serco
Group plc. NPL receives approximately two-thirds of its funding
through the National Measurement System sponsored by BIS.
Dr Brian R Bowsher
Managing Director
National Physical Laboratory
30 November 2010
5 Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) were initially
adopted by NASA and are now increasingly used to describe research
from pure (TRLs 1-3) to industrial (TRLs 7-9). The applied research
(TRLs 4-6) historically championed by government laboratories
and research institutions has suffered in the last two decades
as recognised in the Royal Society's report "The Scientific
Century" published in March 2010. Back
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