§ Mrs. ButlerTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the relationship between science spending and industrial productivity. [60971]
§ Mr. Battle[holding answer 3 December 1998]: Investment in scientific research is essential to increasing industrial productivity: that is why we have secured an extra £1.4 billion for the Science Base. We must also harness better the assets of our excellent knowledge base and secure them for competitive advantage. The Competitiveness White Paper highlights this need to enhance exploitation of technology and knowledge as a key feature of a modern industrial policy.
Initiatives taken this year to enhance the exploitation of science and technology and so to encourage industrial productivity include:
a doubling of funding for the Teaching Company Scheme to promote the movement of people and knowledge between industry and the science basean extension of the SMART scheme to stimulate business R&D in new products and processesthree new LINK programme this year, in response to priorities identified by Foresight and representing Government funding of up to £15 million.the University Challenge Fund scheme, a competition set up by Government, the Wellcome Trust and the Gatsby Charitable Foundation offering £40 million to help universities set up seed funds to turn good research into good business.Science Enterprise Challenge, a £25 million scheme to support up to 8 Institutes for Enterprise in universities and to introduce courses in enterprise in science and engineering curricula.the new Higher Education Reach Out fund (HERO) providing £50 million over 3 years to ensure students acquire the skills that business needs, and to improve business access to universities' resources and services.