§ Mr. David Howellasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will take steps to encourage the placing of research contract by industry at institutions of higher education.
§ Mr. WaldenAs was stated in "The Development of Higher Education in to the 1990's" (Cmnd 9524), the Government consider that higher education needs to develop closer and better working with industry and commerce. In particular, business should be able to take advantage of what higher education has to offer through research, technology transfer, business start-up facilities and consultancy. We are doing what we can to encourage this.
The Further Education Act 1985 removed barriers to commercial exploitation of their work by local authority institutions of further and higher education. The grant allocations for 1986–87 announced by the University Grants Committee, and its intentions for subsequent years, reward universities' success in attracting research funds from outside sources. The Science and Engineering Research Council has also initiated several schemes to promote links between higher education and industry, including for teaching companies, and for co-operative grants and awards.