Innovation and Growth - the need for evidence based policy

If British innovation could drive British growth, it would have already happened, says David Edgerton

First it was the budget, then it was the regulators. Now they have come for UK Research and Innovation. The government’s mission for UKRI’s next leader, Ian Chapman, is growth, growth, growth.

But UK research policy has been focused on growth for decades. The brilliant British science base would—it was and still is believed—bring forth innovations that, when taken up by entrepreneurs, transform the economy. 

Yet despite 40 years of growth-oriented public R&D spending, and lavish subsidies to private R&D, and generous support for spinouts and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and venture capital, the economy has grown more slowly than before, with productivity growth flatlining since the 2008 financial crisis. 

Put another way, where are the world-beating British enterprises and products born from government-funded research programmes and spinouts? Don’t say the chip designer Arm—it is not British-owned, and doesn’t owe its success to public research funding. The reality is that at best, one gets talk of unicorn valuations, not significant turnover or employment. 

This growth model has already failed. However, Labour’s answer is, as with economic policy more generally, to double down on past Tory policies, pretending they were never applied or were applied incompetently.  

Continued in Research Fortnight