During September 2022, His Majesty’s Government is expected to announce an Emergency Budget/ Fiscal Event in a move to ease the pressure of the cost-of-living crisis and boost economic growth. Ahead of this anticipated event, AIRTO – the Association of Innovation, Research & Technology Organisations – has put forward representation to the government calling for growth powered by innovation, highlighting the key policy interventions needed in relation to delivering an innovation-led strategy to boost growth to address the UK’s immediate economic and societal challenges, and for the long-term development of an energy-secure Net Zero economy.
AIRTO welcomed the recent commitments to public investment in science and innovation, made in the 2021 Spending Review aimed at boosting and levelling-up economic growth, delivered through the Innovation Strategy.
In the wake of the economic pressures presented by rising energy costs, inflation, and the resulting cost of living crisis, it is critical that the government continues to recognise and invest in innovation as a key mechanism for boosting economic growth and supporting businesses to become stronger and more resilient. Innovation is also a key mechanism for tackling the climate crisis and for safeguarding our energy security. This means continuing to strive for ‘Science and Technology Superpower’ status by supporting fundamental research for the long-term, and also supporting the development and application of innovation and research and development (R&D) that is vital for the short- and medium-term economic and societal wellbeing. In the longer-term, better balanced support for development and innovation activities will ensure improvements to the UK’s science and innovation infrastructure to equip it to meet industrial needs and drive national productivity and prosperity. An innovation-led strategy (as discussed in AIRTO’s Position Paper, ‘More D!’) offers the potential to dramatically increase the UK’s commercial exploitation of science and innovation to boost business growth.
Utilising the UK’s extensive Innovation, Research and Technology (IRT) sector, which employs 57,000 highly skilled people and has a combined annual turnover of £6.9Bn and contributes £34Bn to UK GDP, is a key vehicle for delivering vital services to industry and is an integral part of the country’s science and innovation strategy aimed at attracting the private industrial investment required to achieve the goal of 2.4% of GDP invested in R&D by 2027. For this Fiscal Event, AIRTO contends that the government needs to strive for:
- Achieving short and medium-term growth through targeted RD&I
- Ensuring sustained long-term investment in RD&I
- Stimulating close-to-market innovation across the UK, a central component of the Innovation Strategy and key to achieving lasting economic growth and levelling up
- Applying pandemic lessons to the current economic crisis
- Building on our world-leading existing capabilities
- Continuing to evolve an open, transparent national plan for RD&I with a clear systems approach
About AIRTO
AIRTO is the Association of Innovation, Research and Technology Organisations. Its membership comprises approximately sixty of the principal organisations operating in the UK’s Innovation, Research and Technology (IRT) sector. The IRT sector has a combined turnover of £6.9Bn, employing over 57,000 scientific and technical staff (equivalent to the academic staffing of the Russell Group of universities) and, for comparison, it is significantly larger than the network of Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany both in size and its scope of activities. The sector contributes £34Bn to UK GDP. AIRTO’s members work at the interface between academia and industry, for both private and public sector clients. Members include independent Research and Technology Organisations, Catapult Centres, Public Sector Research Establishments, National Laboratories, and some privately held innovation companies.
For further information, please contact: enquiries@airto.co.uk
