Devolve 1/4 of R&D funding

Innovation policy needs redesigning to benefit more people and places, says Jen Rae

Last month, the Commons Science and Technology Committee released its long-awaited review of the balance of R&D spending across disciplines, sectors and places in the UK. This followed a year of written and oral evidence sessions from experts in research, science and innovation policy, and the final report really got to the heart of the tradeoffs made in prioritising public funding for research and innovation.

It was extremely pleasing to see the committee recognise the geographic imbalance of R&D funding, where spending is heavily skewed towards southeast England. The rhetoric of place-based innovation policy has been growing in recent years, but has lacked concrete initiatives to really deliver innovation policy differently.