OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE
3.23 Our witnesses
are agreed that the entrepreneurial qualities of science base
researchers appears to be improving. This is very much to be
welcomed. But pressure to innovate can retard new ideas. So
while we welcome the statements from DTI about its commitment
to basic science we were concerned by evidence from the Chairman
of the CVCP about the shift in the balance of funding. Changes
made at individual universities to shift their balance from investigator
driven research to applied research and development could, on
aggregate, lead to a major shift away from the national effort
devoted to basic science which industry relies on them to undertake.
We recommend that the universities and the Funding Councils
should monitor the overall balance of effort and if necessary
put in place mechanisms to prevent short-term work squeezing out
the longer-term basic research.
3.24 A reason given
for the very welcome improvement in entrepreneurial qualities
at United Kingdom universities is that they have been forced to
innovate and compete in their quest for more funds. Some of the
university researchers who contribute the most to industrial innovation
are also world leaders in science and technology, and most of
these researchers consider that their industry-funded research
complements their government-funded research[6].
However, as the proportion of funding provided by the Government
has fallen we have received a number of warnings[7]
from industry that our science base is slipping below world-class
standards in its level of equipment and thus in the training which
it provides. This has implications for the distribution of funding.
Resources cannot be spread evenly if the best laboratories are
to be equipped to the standards necessary to undertake research
at the forefront of their chosen discipline. This implies a focused
approach, concentrating highly specialised resources in a way
that is already familiar to the users of large science facilities
such as particle physicists and astronomers. The corollary is
access must be given to researchers of high calibre from other
institutions. We recommend that the Funding Councils should
ensure that a higher proportion of available funds be channelled
into creating centres of excellence, which should be accessible
to researchers of high calibre irrespective of their university.
3.25 However, the contribution
of smaller, less research intensive institutions also deserves
attention. Large organisations have a certain rapport: global
companies, large research intensive universities and government
find it easy to talk together. It is by no means clear that these
large organisations find it easy to deal with small entrepreneurial
companies. We were impressed by what we heard of the role of
the ex-polytechnic sector in acting as a bridge between small
local businesses and the research base, both national and international.
We suspect this work is not as widely recognised and valued as
it should be. We recommend that the DTI consider an enhanced
role for its small firms programme in support of this bridging
work between the ex-polytechnic sector and small, local businesses.
3.26 Within universities
we welcome initiatives that seek to provide management training
for science and engineering students. Some of those who are so
trained may, of course, leave research behind and become managers.
But this is not a bad outcome: scientist-managers are likely
to be more open to science-based innovations than managers with
no technical background. We were impressed by steps taken by
some sectors of the venture capital and banking industry to explain
to universities the workings of their industry and the opportunities
for finance. We recommend those universities that are not
taking advantage of the work of the capital providers in explaining
financial issues to researchers to follow the example of those
who do.
3.27 We endorse the
views expressed by Professor Roberts that universities should
be able to manage their own IPR. We recommend that universities
recognise the importance of IPR management and devote the necessary
resources to it.
6 E. Mansfield, Academic Research Underlying Industrial
Innovation: Sources, Characteristics and Financing, Review
of Economics and Statistics, 76(1) 55-65, 1995. Back
7 Paragraph
3.7; see also this Committee's 2nd Report (1993-94), Priorities
for the Science Base, HL Paper 12, ISBN 0 10 48109
4. Back
