Collaboration applies to power delivery of the next industrial strategy

An update of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) shows a direction for the white paper to come.

In what already looks like a life, the government has published The Green Paper for its new industrial strategy Investing 2035 Last November. This marked an important moment and a return to industrial policy after the departure of Theresa Mays 2017 industrial strategy under the conservative government of Boris Johnsons.

The Green Journal was reasonably of high level, presenting the justification of governments of a new industrial strategy and offering some indications on how it was going to stock up on the objectives of strategies.

In the article, we have learned the eight major sectors that would be prioritized (wide being the word operating here). Each sector will be supported by a specific plan. The priority sectors were:

• Advanced manufacturing
• Defense

• Professional and commercial services

The Invest 2035 green paper was an opportunity for stakeholders to subject their point of view on the direction of the trip, and by all the indications, many have taken this chance, the government says it has received responses from more than 3,000 organizations and individuals. NCUB was one of them, and our answer focused on the need to incorporate university-business collaboration to successfully offer the industrial strategy. We have also had active discussions with the members of the Advisory Council on the Industrial Strategy to advise the next stages of the new industrial strategy and to feed the vital perspective of universities and businesses.

Public investment in R&D is at record heights, and the NCUB analysis has demonstrated the positive lever effect that this has on private expenses of R&D. However, commercial investment in R&D decreased by 6% between 2021 and 2023. Something does not work as it should be, and the government will have to remedy the obstacles that prevent companies from investing if it wants to succeed in industrial strategy.

We have highlighted these obstacles in our response to consultation, including access to finance companies, a lack of expertise and skills, and an overly complex R & public ecosystem, which all act as investment obstacles. We have also strongly highlighted the importance of university-enterprise collaboration.

Universities support economic growth and productivity in a multitude of ways, whether by R&D, marketing or development of skills (to name only a few). They collaborate with companies to undertake research, offering their own expertise and access to vital infrastructure. Industry information in the university world is essential to align research in priority areas.

Nevertheless, we have increased the significant opposite winds facing universities and their ability to collaborate with industry, citing the impact that this could have on the ability to stimulate industrial strategy. A long -term solution with the financial challenges faced by higher education will be necessary to grasp the full potential of the industrial strategy.

We have also stressed the importance of facilitating navigation for businesses, in particular SMEs, navigating in the public ecosystem of R&D and innovation. While recognizing that this will not happen overnight, the industrial strategy can and should articulate a clear objective around which the components financed by the state of the innovation system could be focused. This joint objective should be deliberately designed to help companies succeed in an evolving global market.

Our answer was more than 30 pages in length, so I will not cover all the details of this blog, you can find the full submission here.

Consultation requires greater collaboration between businesses and the academic world

The government has now shared a summary of the responses they have received, and many points align with the NCUB.

Access to external finances and government funding has been frequently cited as key needs of respondents to the consultation. It has been considered that high borrowing costs and other obstacles discourage businesses, in particular SMEs, from access to finances. This is associated with a lack of risk appetite for lenders.

This limited access to finance retains innovation, the responses calling for improvement of patients to support businesses in innovation and adoption of new technologies. Innovation is also retained by the regulatory environment, because companies have indicated that regulatory complexity, uncertainty and capacity constraints in certain regulators lead to delays and increase costs, business growth.

Submissions to the consultation have highlighted the shortages of skills as an obstacle to growth and the need to deal with the inadequacy between the results of education and the needs of the industry. The government has learned that productivity could be stimulated by 5% if the United Kingdom could reduce these levels of gap, which have been observed in all the main sectors of the industrial strategy. The other key points raised in the consultation responses include upgrading and adding to the aging UKS infrastructure, and a need for growth policies based on the place.

The responses have stressed that national priorities should align with the local growth plans of the authorities combined by the mayor and the nations taken -up, as well as other local government structures.

In a welcome statement, the government has recognized that more work must be done to increase collaboration between industry and the university world in order to fill the gap between research and marketing. An improved collaboration with international partners on standards, R&D, innovation and trade have all been highlighted in the responses to the consultation. There is also a call for a more rationalized, transparent and collaborative partnership between industry and the government, because the problems of mediocre public communication and the lack of clarity of the government have been cited as obstacles to growth.

What is the next step for the industrial strategy?

In short, it seems that the answers to the consultation have covered many of the key questions that NCUB raised in our submission. In terms of next steps, accent until April will be on the detailed design of policies. The government said it focused on regulation, skills and access to talents, loan facilities and the role of public financing establishments. The individual plans for each of the sectors are developed by named ministerial avenues, the advisory advice on the industrial strategy in place to examine the global strategy and ensure that it meets the objectives of regional and national economic growth.

The complete industrial strategy will be published in parallel with the examination of multi-year expenses, which should be launched in mid-June. The long -term implementation of the industrial strategy, with the monitoring and evaluation of the advisory council on the industrial strategy, will then begin.

As I mentioned, NCUB was in dialogue with the members of the Advisory Council on the Industrial Strategy. In these discussions, we continued to share the perspectives of our members through the university and the business sector and to share our recommendations directly to the Council for the realization of the industrial strategy. NCUB has three active realdrarems which are all closely linked to this work. These are:

• Our R&D workforce led by the company, considering how to reverse the decline and accelerate R&D investment in the private sector;

• A new survey on the future skills of the United Kingdom, and;

• A work taking into account the effects of university financing challenges on the exchange of knowledge.

If you want to know more about our work, do not hesitate to get in touch.