R&D: restore the missing link
A report for any business to read and ponder. The mismatch between supply of academic research output and demand from industrial research & development is at (the very) least a missed opportunity (at the worst a fatal flaw) whose correction could improve our economic performance finds a recent report by the Scottish Science Advisory Council, which has taken a cool look at the issues ranging from whether current definitions and resultant statics are serving us properly, to the apparent 'missing' R&D in such major sectors as financial services. Perhaps the most puzzling missing issue is that of R&D for Defence, to which Scottish industry does contribute a its quiet share, but sems to have been excluded from the reports equations altogether.
It is widely recognised that business innovation is a driver of economic growth and that R&D in business is a driver of innovation. Yet Scotland is characterised by a relatively low level of business R&D compared to the rest of the UK and other comparable countries.
In contrast, Scotland’s Universities are recognised as highly competitive earners of research income and for the quality of their research. Scotland’s universities output (research, consultancy, trained PhD graduates) are not being captured by Scottish industry, which in turn exerts little influence on the research undertaken in academia
The facts
Expenditure on research in the higher education sector stood at 12.4% of the UK total in 2005 with a total spend of £688m or 0.7% of GDP, comfortably leading the other countries of the UK on a population basis.
By contrast, Business R&D conducted in Scotland under-performs the rest of the UK, contributing only 0.56% of GDP compared with 1.08% for the UK as a whole in 20062. Overall, Business Enterprise Research & Development (BERD) expenditure in Scotland was £584m in 2005, or 4.4% of the UK total.
Read the full story at Compute Scotland