Dr. Jayne Brady MBE, Belfast Digital Innovation Commissioner and Chair of BRCD Digital Pillar, has been named as a member of the new UK Innovation Expert Group which aims to support entrepreneurs and start-ups, increasing the flow of capital into firms carrying out R&D and enabling them to scale up.
The group, which will be chaired by Hayaatun Sillem CBE FIET , CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering, also includes Felicity Burch, Director of Innovation and Digital at the CBI; Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of Economics of Innovation & Public Value, UCL; Paul Clarke, Chief Technology Officer at Ocado; Nick Laird CBE Director, Bombardier Aviation and David Gann, Professor of Innovation and Technology at Imperial College Business School.
The group’s aim is to help review and improve how UK Government supports the whole innovation system, including strengthening the interactions between discovery research, applied research, innovation, commercialisation and deployment, taking account of the different innovation support systems across the four nations.
The formation of the group is one of the first steps on the UK Government’s recently published Research and Development (R&D) Roadmap, which sets out the UK’s and ambition for science, research and innovation.
The plans highlight the governments ambition to cement the UK as the world’s leading research and science superpower, by pursuing ground-breaking research, attracting global talent, and cutting unnecessary red tape.
According to the roadmap, R&D will be critical to a swift economic and social recovery from the impacts of COVID-19, describing a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to strengthen our global position in research, unleash a new wave of innovation, enhance our national security and revitalise our international ties”.
A commitment to increasing UK investment in R&D to 2.4% of GDP by 2027 and to increase public funding for R&D to £22 billion per year by 2024 to 2025 is also set out in the plan to enable major strides to be taken towards this goal.