British Government Wants Innovation Nation

As readers know, the United Kingdom is no slouch in the world’s economy. A steady rise in productivity since 1997, the pound trading at nearly twice the dollar, and the home of some of the world’s top research universities and a global financial center for centuries all attest to the United Kingdom’s strong economic position.
 
How it is preparing to sustain and expand its competitive position through strategies like those enumerated in the April release of Innovation Nation stands in sharp contrast to U.S. policies and investments to support science and technology-based growth.
 
For evidence, one needs look no further than the unit of the British government that released the strategy – the UK Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). DIUS has no U.S. counterpart working to coordinate advanced research investments, workforce preparedness, and tech-based economic development initiatives. U.S. efforts in these areas are scattered across several agencies and have been perennial targets and often victims for budget.
 
Innovation Nation outlines nearly four dozen specific action items to encourage the permeation of innovation throughout the United Kingdom. Virtually no element of society is left untouched by the agenda. Highlights of items not being discussed loudly in the U.S.:

• For all sectors of business, including the services and creative industries, DIUS will provide innovation vouchers to finance collaboration between 500-1,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and the “knowledge-based institution of their choice.” The department also will ensure finance accessibility at all stages of growth, will double the number of knowledge transfer partnerships between educational institutions and UK businesses, and is training all export and business link staff in advising businesses on management and licensing of intellectual property. It also will develop an international marketing, regulation and research strategies to aid businesses in working in the EU and international markets.
• For universities, DIUS will continue to expand research investments and broaden knowledge exchange opportunities into the arts and humanities, further develop an online toolkit of model technology transfer agreements, and create an Innovation Research Centre in partnership with several other government agencies.
• For its citizenry, DIUS will establish at least one national skills academy in every major sector of the economy to design and prepare optimal curricula and approaches for workforce development, create regionally based graduate-level university enterprise networks, and expand apprenticeship and training programs; and,
• Perhaps most humbly, DIUS calls for the public sector to transform procurement processes to encourage innovation and to develop mechanisms to inspire and reward innovation in breaking down bureaucracy and overly burdensome procedures and regulations.

Innovation Nation is available at: http://www.dius.gov.uk/publications/ScienceInnovation.pdf