Where is the game changer?

Chi Onwurah

Research at Harvard Business School suggests that 85 per cent of growth in output in any given economy comes from innovation. How do recent government initiatives, not least last week’s government Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth, measure up to this daunting proposition?

The signals from the UK government are mixed. Chancellor George Osborne has repeatedly claimed to have protected the science budget. But last week he did not deny evidence I put to him from the House of Commons Library that the science budget has been cut by 15 per cent.