§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what are the reasons for the closure of the advanced technology programme and support for innovation; and what evaluation of these programmes was carried out before their closure.
§ Mr. McLoughlinThe support for innovation scheme was withdrawn as a result of the decision, announced in the 1988 White Paper, "DTI—the Department for Enterprise", Cm 278, to end DTI support for near-market research and development through grants to individual companies. An evaluation of the scheme was carried out in July 1987.
The advanced technology programmes were closed in September 1993 following a further review of DTI's science and technology policy and programmes in the context of the White Paper on science, engineering and technology, "Realising our potential" (Cm 2250). The review decided that the balance of DTI's innovation support should be shifted away from generating new technology, on which DTI spend was less than 2 per cent. of industry's own research and development spend, towards technology transfer and exploitation and the promotion of innovation. Two programmes were evaluated; gallium arsenide in May 1991 and wealth from the oceans in December 1992.