This project, commissioned by the Design Council, investigates the gap in innovation performance and policy between the UK and other leading nations. Assuming the importance of innovation for improvements in productivity and hence economic growth, the report gathers the available evidence on innovation performance in the UK and asks where improvements could be made in the UK's policy framework to improve innovation outcomes.

Innovation, through its impact on productivity is an important component of economic growth. As the Chancellor indicated in his Pre-Budget report in December 2005 "… the UK's economic success will depend on its ability to create new knowledge and translate it into innovative goods and services." However, there is growing concern that the UK is underperforming in terms of innovation and more specifically is not taking advantage of its strong science base. The traditional view is that the UK invents but does not innovate well. If this is true the UK is at risk of providing the skills and knowledge for other countries to grow while not taking advantage of its own investments.

This project, commissioned by the Design Council, reviews the available evidence on innovation performance for the UK and provides evidence on the existence of a growing innovation gap between the UK and other nations. It also reviews policies in the UK to see if there is a need for modifications and new policies targeted at improving outcomes in science and technology exploitation to improve the long term growth potential of the UK.

Collaborators

This project was run as a collaboration between the Centre for Technology Management, with input from Dr Tim Minshall & Dr James Moultrie, and the Centre for Economics & Policy, with input from Finbarr Livesey.

Outputs

The primary output is a report to the Design Council. This report will be available for download or purchase from the end of May 2006

Sponsors

This work has been supported by the Design Council