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Innovation Needs Frameworks and Focus: Why the UK Must Rethink Regulation and R&D Priorities
As the United Kingdom strives to maintain its competitive edge globally, innovation takes center stage in conversations around government, industry, and academia. However, a crucial challenge arises when addressing innovation: ensuring it is not only swift but also fair, strategic, and grounded in today’s economy. The UK’s focus on R&D investments has been disproportionately allocated towards high-profile sectors such as life sciences, advanced computing, and AI development. While these areas are undoubtedly vital, neglecting the sectors that already drive the country’s economy may have devastating consequences.
The services sector, comprising finance, education, and creative industries, accounts for an astonishing 75% of UK business activity. The creative industries alone contributed a staggering £124.6 billion to Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2022. Unfortunately, these sectors are woefully under-supported when it comes to R&D funding and innovation infrastructure. This lack of support is not merely a cultural gap; rather, it’s an economic blind spot.
Regional disparity persists as well. While overall UK R&D spending reached £66.2 billion in 2021, the lion’s share of this investment remains concentrated within the ‘Golden Triangle.’ Meanwhile, dynamic innovation ecosystems in cities like Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, and Liverpool continue to face hurdles in accessing capital, lab infrastructure, and public funding. We cannot afford a two-tier system where one form of innovation is highly funded, regulated, and supported, while other economically crucial sectors are overlooked.
To become a global innovation leader, the UK must go beyond betting big on future-facing technologies. Instead, regulatory frameworks and R&D investments must be reoriented to reflect the true shape of our economy, encompassing those sectors that have consistently delivered jobs, productivity, and export strength for decades.
Firstly, regulators should be incentivized to locate within the clusters they oversee, as demonstrated by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), who have already taken steps to engage with regulatory bodies. This means fostering a culture of collaboration between academia, industry, and government.
Secondly, R&D funding must support not only scientific discovery but also commercially-driven innovation across finance, education, and the creative sectors. This could involve incentivizing private-public partnerships to drive sustainable growth and job creation.
Thirdly, infrastructure should be designed to be adaptable and future-ready, catering to a broader range of industries while simultaneously addressing regional disparities. Lastly, it is essential to recognize that trust, place-based regulation, and collaboration are just as vital to innovation as the technologies themselves. Innovation does not occur in isolation; rather, it emerges within ecosystems where universities, startups, established businesses, regulators, investors, and communities interact.
By doing so, the UK will no longer be a nation that merely invents the future but one that delivers it – inclusively, sustainably, and at scale.
Source: www.forbes.com
