Tag Archives: research and development

LibLink: Norman Lamb on the Government’s Industrial Strategy

By NewsHound | Mon 11th December 2017 - 9:27 pm

Following the Government’s publication of its industrial strategy, Norman Lamb, who chairs the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, has let his feelings be known.

In a balanced and thoughtful piece, Norman places the proposals within the context of risks due to Brexit, and a potential funding gap whilst the economy recovers. He also notes that the investment has to be spread around the co7ntry more evenly;

We also need to make sure that this investment is dispersed around the country, promoting excellence in research in lower-income regions. Research in science and

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged norman lamb | 4 Comments

Opinion: A lack of leadership on public R&D spending

By Tad Jones | Mon 16th March 2015 - 11:22 am

View image | gettyimages.com

Analysis from the Science is Vital campaign has been released with the worrying news that UK public sector spending on research and development has dropped to less than 0.5% of GDP.

“Not only does the decline in investment put us at the bottom of the G8 group of countries, but it’s less than any G8 country has invested in R&D in the last 20 years.”

This is also less than the EU average, and the OECD average for public R&D spending. Science is Vital argue that this is a result of a flat cash settlement in 2010, cuts in capital expenditure, and significant reductions in departmental spending on research. The campaign for science and engineering (CaSE) have echoed this with an estimate that “The cumulative erosion of the ringfenced science budget will be over £1.1bn from the beginning of 2010 spending review period up to 2015/16.”

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged science | 8 Comments

Vince Cable’s £10 million boost for biology business

By Newsmoggie | Wed 6th November 2013 - 1:17 pm

Vince Cable has shown a consistent commitment to investing in science and the latest plank of that is unveiled in today’s Telegraph:

Vince Cable has raised £10m of investment from the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council to help entrepreneurial scientists working in synthetic biology to establish their business.

Access to funding is seen as the greatest threat to the survival of small companies operating in these fast-growth markets, said Mr Cable.

“The banks have walked away from SMEs. They’ve been badly hit,” the Business Secretary said. “I want to help these firms through the so-called ‘valley of death’.

This is part of

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Posted in News | Also tagged science and vince cable | 2 Comments

Opinion: Size does matter – UK under-investment in research and development

By Issan Ghazni | Mon 20th February 2012 - 11:54 am

I welcome Julian Huppert’s important contribution towards updating our party’s science policy and, along with others, efforts in making the case for science in politics.

In his 30th January article on LDV, Julian, quite rightly, made the point that UK science and research is definitely world class, and it’s in all our interests not to be complacent about that.

As a Party, we can come up with lots of ideas and innovative policies to boost UK science, and to campaign tirelessly to get them implemented. However, the key barrier to better utilising science to drive forward the economy is our …

Posted in Op-eds | 3 Comments