BIS report cautions against further lab privatisations

Author urges government not to ‘throw baby out with bathwater’

The UK government needs to think about the long term when funding its network of public-sector research establishments, according to a draft report commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and seen by Research Fortnight.

Research and Innovation Organisations in the UK: Innovation functions and policy issues was written by Keith Smith, an innovation research fellow at Imperial College London’s business school. Smith was head of the Knowledge and Innovation Analysis team at BIS from 2009 to 2012, when the report was commissioned partly to record the benefits of UK public labs and help protect them from potential cuts or privatisation. The report had not been published by the time this article went to press on Monday night.