February 2024
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This conference focused on priorities for innovation finance, and growing investment in business and university R&D in the UK.
It followed publication of the Government’s response in the Autumn Statement to both the Independent Review of University Spin-Out Companies and RDI organisational landscape: an independent review, which accepted that there is a need for long-term reform and sector engagement, and outlined its vision for a RDI organisational landscape that is dynamic, diverse, resilient and investable.
Delegates discussed progress, policy proposals and next steps for growing the availability of investment to support scaling up for innovative UK science and technology companies in sectors such as AI, life sciences, net zero and clean energy, digital, and major infrastructure. They also assessed options for maximising the impact on local and regional growth.
Stakeholders and policymakers examined sources of government funding and how to increase confidence and expected returns for private investors, as well as priorities for widening funding sources and growing foreign investment. They discussed strategies for supporting unicorns and futurecorns, and for strengthening the competitive positioning of the UK in innovation finance.
The agenda brought out latest thinking on key issues following the Government’s Science and Technology Framework, published in March 2023, which aims to enable the UK to become a science and technology superpower by 2030.
Further sessions examined priorities for public investment, including the likely impact of the Government’s recently announced £60m Regional Innovation Fund, which aims to increase support for universities with low levels of R&D investment, as well as the role of investment zones and freeport initiatives in bolstering regional innovation finance.
The agenda also looked at steps to reduce burdens for firms seeking public R&D investment and to further tackle barriers faced by the research system, following the Independent Review of Research Bureaucracy led by Professor Adam Tickell.
We are pleased to have been able to include keynote sessions with: Sam Dickson, Head of Access to Finance, HM Treasury; Lord Holmes, Member, House of Lords Science and Technology Committee; and Vice Chair, APPG on FinTech; Geeta Nathan, Deputy Director of Innovation Ecosystem Strategy, Innovate UK; and Greg Wade, Head of Innovation Policy, Universities UK .
The conference was an opportunity for stakeholders to consider the issues alongside key policy officials who attended from DAERA, NI; DBT; Defra; Department for the Economy, NI; DESNZ; DfT; DSIT; FCDO; FSA; GLD; GO-Science; HMRC; HM Treasury; IPO; Isle of Man Government; NAO; UKHSA; UKIB; UKSA; The Scottish Government; and the Welsh Government.
