Weeks of 29th of July
Here Greg Falconer, Director of Innovation Policy at Nesta, offers PM Johnson some real advice on how to “double down” on UK R&D investment
A great overview from HEPI on the top HE issues this year include:
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Six mayoral combined authorities and the Greater London Authority are now accountable for administering the adult education budget in their areas. Read in full here
On 29th July 2019, NCUB played host to a launch event for a review of university-investor links, commissioned by Research England from Mike Rees, former deputy group CEO of Standard Chartered, start-up commercialisation expert and angel investor. In this blog, he lays out some of his high-level findings and sets them in their national policy context. See related reports below:
HEPI gues guest blog by Dr. Samuel Martín-Barbero, Vice-Chancellor at the University Camilo José Cela (Madrid, Spain).
Week of 22nd of July
The next wave of major industrial and societal challenges to receive investment through the government’s modern Industrial Strategy have been confirmed by Business Secretary Greg Clark. Details of the next wave of challenges confirmed by the Business Secretary are:
Demonstrating the unique strengths of the Oxford-Cambridge Arc area and its local economies, Government has published four Local Industrial Strategies covering Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Oxfordshire and the South East Midlands.
The Government has also published the West of England Local Industrial Strategy, looking at how to most effectively build on the creativity, collaboration and ingenuity of the region, as well as setting a clear strategy that addresses existing barriers to productivity. Read more here.
Get in touch if you'd like a transcript of this event.
In cities around the world, a growing movement is redefining the spatial geography of the innovation economy. Innovation districts are evolving geographies of innovation anchored by R&D-intensive universities, medical institutions, and companies. Analysis now shows there are well over 100 innovation districts emerging globally in cities with vastly different economic starting points, regional advantages, and population sizes. Unlike traditional research parks and science corridors, these districts embrace the urban attributes of density, proximity, and accessibility—places where a “mash up” of economic strengths, physical assets and amenities, and robust social networks foster an open, collaborative innovation ecosystem. Read more here.
by Sheffield Hallam University's CRESR
Week of 15th of July
Database will be used to assess effect of policies as focus shifts to preventing illness.
For too long the UK Government has promised to tackle health inequalities and improve health but failed to follow through with sufficient investment or action.
Ninety per cent of the national health budget is spent on treating disease, with this same imbalance mirrored in research. This means we know a lot about what causes good and bad health, but woefully little about how best to improve it.
We're proposing a new centre of innovation and research excellence that draws on a range of expertise to build evidence-based solutions: The Nightingale.
Read more here and here.
A report prepared for the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
By Jostein Hauge and Eoin O’Sullivan
Latest additions to the evidence series include:
Degree apprenticeships are a success story. The number of people starting degree apprenticeships is rapidly increasing, the range of apprenticeships on offer is broadening and the first degree apprentices have recently graduated. But progress developing degree apprenticeships in England is being held back by poor levels of awareness among school pupils, parents and employers.
The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has launched a new inquiry into progress on devolution in England. The inquiry will scrutinise the impact of recently agreed devolution agreements and ask if the transfer of further powers to England’s cities and regions can boost local economies and provision of public services. More here.
Public and private investment of £721m will create 11 new university research centres to develop specialist industrial clusters and drive economic growth in South Wales, the South West, East Midlands and North West, London and the South East.
The facilities will support cutting-edge research and innovation in a wide range of areas – from accelerating the development of satellite technology and the next generation of semiconductors, to the advancement of treatments for cardiorespiratory disease, eye health and cancer.
Research England, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing £221m through its flagship UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF). Nearly 100 businesses, charities and philanthropic donors, such as BT, Siemens, South West Water and the British Heart Foundation, have committed an additional £500m.
Among those securing funding are:
Week of 8th of July
University of Sheffield President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Koen Lamberts and Professor Keith Ridgway, Executive Dean of the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, outline how the next Prime Minister can rebalance the country by recognising our global excellence in Sheffield. Read more here.
Comptroller and auditor general Gareth Davies has praised local authorities for their management of finances and funding amid the period of austerity. Read more here.
Read the Science Minister Chris Skidmore speech here: Becoming an Innovation Nation: Driving up private investment into research and development
The UK has legislated for net-zero emissions by 2050 – now the UK Government must show it is serious about its legal obligations to tackle and prepare for climate change, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) says in two new reports on reducing emissions and preparing for climate change impacts. Read more here.
Investments in R&D to foster technology, science or product innovation are just the first steps towards success. The hard part of innovation is achieving market success with the technology and products we invent. Some of the most innovative companies in the world do not spend a lot on R&D in proportion to their revenues. Read full blog by Strategyzer here.
Skills shortages and a lack of diversity in UK engineering can be overcome with a new approach by thinking about recruiting from a ‘reservoir of talent’ which is ready to learn, rather than the existing ‘leaky pipeline’.
To drive innovation, productivity and economic growth the UK needs to prepare for the skills challenges of the coming decades. Through workshops and a rapid evidence assessment, the Talent 2050 final report explores future engineering needs in the UK for a globally-competitive skills and diversity mix.
Review reveals how Higher Technical Qualifications can lead to better wages and plug skills gaps. Read more here, including WonkHE piece. The consultation is now open on improving improving higher technical education til 29 September.
The report is based on a survey of 950 senior business leaders and reveals that organisations in the UK are spending £4.4 billion a year as a result of the skills shortage, as more than two-thirds (68%) of employers struggled to find workers with the right skills. The research considers four main areas of expense: increased recruitment costs, inflated salaries, training for those hired at a lower level than required and temporary staffing for gaps that could not be filled.
Week of 1st of July
In case you missed it, you can still see the presentations here.
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Universities and Science Minister confirms an additional £91 million for university-led research.
This interim report from the Chancellor’s Financial Services Skills Taskforce, chaired by Mark Hoban and convened by TheCityUK, with support from the City of London Corporation and EY, identifies a series of major skills challenges facing the sector.
The PEC Policy Unit is consulting on research priorities across the creative industries - they are seeking input on the main questions the PEC should be addressing to help the creative industries grow, both nationally and regionally. PEC is looking for topics that relate to the economic performance of the creative industries and encourage ideas from industry, policymakers and academia to ensure that our research agenda, while strictly independent, is relevant to the sector. See more here.
The HUmber LEP Industrial Strategy Prospectus was launched at our Annual Business Summit:
The prospectus is summarised in the video below:
Comments from businesses, individuals and other organisations on the proposed priorities are welcome until 31 July. Consultation questions and details of how to respond are included in the full version of the prospectus above. A survey will be published shortly, but in the meantime you can contact them directly with your comments. You can also view the evidence base that supports the prospectus.
Week of 24th of June
First tourism sector deal will prepare Britain for an extra 9 million visitors per year, with commitment to build 130,000 new hotel rooms by 2025.
Employment and earnings outcomes of graduates for each higher education provider broken down by subject studied and gender.
An innovative research programme to investigate the impact of health on society and the economy
This programme is open for application until 25 July 2019.
The Regional innovation scoreboard (RIS) is a regional extension of the European innovation scoreboard, assessing the innovation performance of European regions on a limited number of indicators. The RIS 2019 covers 238 regions across 23 EU countries, Norway, Serbia, and Switzerland. In addition, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, and Malta are included at country level.
This report, the first major output of the partnership between the Centre for Progressive Policy (CPP) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Inclusive Growth, introduces the new CPP Inclusive Growth Country Index. Headline findings:
England’s rural areas in 2017 generated gross value added of at least £246 billion and employ 3.5 million people. In this blog, Professor Jeremy Phillipson and Roger Turner, Rural Enterprise UK, Newcastle University, argue the government’s modern Industrial Strategy is focussed on creating growth and opportunities for places all over our country.
In his first appearance before Parliament since the publication of the Augar Review, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee will question Dr Philip Augar and members of the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding.