Brexit and supporting disruptive innovation
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News from Westminster
Brexit and supporting disruptive innovation
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There was a mood of open optimism at the Westminster Higher Education Forum , held in late February . This timely conference drew together key policymakers and affected stakeholders to discuss the future of science and innovation policy .
REASON FOR OPTIMISM With the recent publication of the Industrial Strategy green paper and Challenge Fund provision of £ 2bn in additional R & D investments per year by the end of 2020 , many speakers saw reason to be optimistic .
Faye Taylor , University Alliance , noted social tensions around immigration , but also presented examples of new business being brought in by universities in Teesside and South Wales . Tim Hart , Oxford University Innovation , pointed out that change drives innovators and entrepreneurs , while Rebecca Lumsden , Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry ( ABPI ), also focused on the opportunities change might bring .
WORK TO BE DONE Kevin Baughan , Innovate UK , said that the UK needed to get better at tapping into science research and increase knowledge transfer between universities and corporations . James Cross , Maucher Jenkins , showed statistics indicating the UK is far behind other European nations in terms of patent filing with initiatives like Patent Box mainly benefiting only large multinationals .
Martin Szomszor , Digital Science , challenged the Brexiteers ’ concept that the UK is paying more into the EU budget than it is getting out . The UK is a net beneficiary when it comes to research funding , receiving € 1.98bn more from the Horizon 2020 programme than it contributes so cannot afford to rest on its laurels in the coming months .
innovation takes time Simon Andrews , Fraunhofer UK , challenged the concept that innovation emerges only from universities . Corporate research and development makes up a large portion of the ecosystem and Andrews noted that even Germany had taken 60 years to build an innovationfostering environment .
Horizon 2020 , offers both funding and a way to embed the UK in a global supply chain . Stephen Metcalfe MP , Chair , House of Commons Science and Technology Committee , mirrored the opinion of many when he noted that there was work to be done and that getting Brexit wrong would hurt scientific progress . ■
Your representatives
Minister of State for Universities , Science , Research and Innovation to Chair UK Gov ' s stakeholder working group on EU exit , universities , research and innovation . Professor
Sir John Holman to represent the Council for Mathematical Sciences , Institute of Physics , Royal Society of Biology and Royal Society of Chemistry as a member .
Mark Walport to be first chief executive of UK Research and Innovation , a new public body organisation uniting Innovate UK , the knowledge exchange functions of the
Higher Education Funding Council for England ( HEFCE ) and the country ’ s seven research councils aimed at strengthening the strategic approach to future challenges .
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