1Background
1.In January 2017 the Government published its Industrial Strategy Green Paper. It stated that the objective of the industrial strategy is “to improve living standards and economic growth by increasing productivity and driving growth across the whole country”.1 It listed 10 ‘strategic pillars’ for the strategy, the first two of which are directly relevant to our interest in science, research and skills:
(1) Investing in science, research and innovation—we must become a more innovative economy and do more to commercialise our world leading science base to drive growth across the UK.
(2) Developing skills—we must help people and businesses to thrive by: ensuring everyone has the basic skills needed in a modern economy; building a new system of technical education to benefit the half of young people who do not go to university; boosting STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) skills, digital skills and numeracy; and by raising skill levels in lagging areas.2
According to the Government, the industrial strategy “will launch a major upgrade in the role of science and innovation in our economy for the years ahead.”3
2.The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee (BEIS Committee) recently reported on the industrial strategy initiative after the publication of the Green Paper.4 Several of our own inquiries have also addressed many of the science and skills issues involved:
- In our November 2015 report on the Science budget, we called for an increased Government science budget and a ‘roadmap’ to increase spending on R&D across all sectors to 3% of GDP.5
- We have been monitoring the Government’s proposed changes to the research and innovation landscape contained within the Higher Education and Research Bill, including the creation of a new body known as UK Research & Innovation (UKRI). We reported on developments in December 2016 after the UKRI Interim Chair was appointed,6 and in March 2017 we took evidence from Sir Mark Walport7 as the then newly appointed CEO-Designate of UKRI.8
- In March 2017 our report on Managing intellectual property and technology transfer highlighted areas where the Government could assist in the technology transfer process, and how businesses and universities could do more to commercialise the results of their research work.9
- We examined the risks and opportunities of Brexit for science and research in two reports—on EU regulation of life sciences10 (before the June 2016 Referendum) and Leaving the EU11 (after the Referendum). We identified the factors which will support the UK’s science and innovation landscape post-Brexit, including access to funding, research collaboration, and access to researchers and scientists with the necessary skills.
- In June 2016 we reported on the Digital skills crisis.12 We have more recently been examining methods for Closing the STEM skills gap,13 including taking evidence14 at the ‘Big Bang Fair’ in Birmingham in March 2017.15
3.We decided to take further oral evidence in February 2017, focusing on how the Green Paper has dealt with the issues from these various inquiries and reports. Our witnesses included representatives from the Royal Society, Nesta and the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, as well as others who had previously given evidence during one or more of our earlier inquiries—the Bio-Industry Association,16 the Royal Academy of Engineering17 and Universities UK.18 We are grateful to them all for their input. We have accordingly produced this short report to bring that work together and thereby feed into the Government’s consultation exercise on its Green Paper. In Chapter 2 we examine the Green Paper’s coverage of science, research and innovation issues, and in Chapter 3 we cover the STEM skills agenda.
1 HM Government, Building our Industrial Strategy: Green Paper (January 2017), p9
4 Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, Second Report of Session 2016–17, Industrial Strategy: First Review, HC 616
5 Science and Technology Committee, First Report of Session 2015–16, The science budget, HC 340, para 37
6 Science and Technology Committee, Eighth Report of Session 2016–17, Setting up UK Research & Innovation, HC 671
7 Oral evidence taken on 15 March 2017, HC 1047
8 On 2 February 2017, BEIS announced Sir Mark Walport’s appointment as CEO-designate of UKRI.
9 Science and Technology Committee, Tenth Report of Session 2016–17, Managing intellectual property and technology transfer, HC 755
10 Science and Technology Committee, First Report of Session 2016–17, EU regulation of the life sciences, HC 158
11 Science and Technology Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2016–17, Leaving the EU: implications and opportunities for science and research, HC 502
12 Science and Technology Committee, Second Report of Session 2016–17, Digital skills crisis, HC 270
13 Closing the STEM skills gap inquiry
15 The latest Big Bang Fair, a science and technology festival for school children organised annually by Engineering UK, was held at the NEC in Birmingham in March 2017
16 Also gave oral evidence in our Managing intellectual property and technology transfer inquiry and EU regulation of the life sciences inquiry.
17 Also gave oral evidence in our Managing intellectual property and technology transfer inquiry and Science budget inquiry
18 Also gave oral evidence in our Leaving the EU inquiry and Science budget inquiry
5 April 2017