Public investment in science good for the economy

A new independent report published today shows that investing public money in science and engineering is good for the economy. The Economic Significance of the UK Science Base - commissioned by CaSE - examines the economic impact of public investment in the UK science base. The new report looks in detail at the relationship between public funding of science and engineering; Naomi Weir tells us more.  The 2015 General Election is now only a year away. Regardless of which party is in power, the subsequent spending review is likely to see budgets trimmed across the board, with deeper cuts in some places. CaSE and the science and engineering community advocate public investment in the UK science base to drive economic growth. But then we would say that, wouldn’t we?  Following the spending review in 2010, CaSE saw that in order to be best equipped for future spending decisions we needed to gather new evidence for the economic and social impact of public investment in the UK science base. So, along with a small group of CaSE members, we commissioned Jonathan Haskel and Alan Hughes to look at some key questions: How does public-sector funding of the science base affect private involvement? How does public science funding affect private sector productivity? What is the role of the UK science base in influencing location decisions of UK and foreign R&D business managers to invest in the UK?  Our new report, the Economic Significance of the UK Science Base, published on 30^th April, is the result. The report provides compelling evidence that public investment in scientific research leads to: economic growth through an increase in private sector productivity, and beneficial economic and social impacts through increased interaction between the academic and private sectors. Based upon the evidence presented in this report, a virtuous circle can be proposed in which additional public investment in research leads to increased private sector research, which in turn leads to an increase in absorptive capacity of the private sector to make use of public sector research, hence amplifying economic benefit. The report calculates that for every £1 spent by the government on R&D, private sector R&D output rises by 20p per year in perpetuity, by raising the level of the UK knowledge base. This effect would of course be larger if the extra public spending on R&D attracted additional private spending on R&D as the report suggests. Equipped with this new evidence we will continue to make the case for public investment in the UK science base as we meet with ministers, government officials and politicians of all parties in run up to the General Election and spending review next year. The full report and policy summary can be found at www.sciencecampaign.org.uk/UKScienceBase.pdf