§ Dr. IddonTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps she has taken to enhance science in her Department since the publication of the Government's science strategy, Investing in Innovation. [162244]
§ Ms HewittDTI is responsible for the bulk of the public expenditure on science and technology research in UK universities, promotes the exploitation of science and engineering in business innovation and uses science to inform its own policies.
The Department will invest over £2.7 billion on university research and business innovation in 2004–2005. In the Budget, the Chancellor announced the Government's intention to establish a 10-year framework for science and innovation, which will be informed by a consultation document as part of the 2004 spending review. Our aim is to grow public investment in the science base faster than the trend rate of GDP growth over the next spending review period.
1366WThe Innovation Report, published in December 2003, sets out our strategy for refocusing DTI's support for business innovation by targeting our innovation investment into a limited number of fields of research, but ensuring that our intervention brings coherence to other support from the public and private sectors and makes a positive difference to outcomes in terms of business productivity and competitiveness.