NCUB Chief Executive Joe Marshall spoke this week at the IGNICIA Forum in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, where he set out how the UK is working to stimulate business demand for knowledge exchange.
Addressing an audience drawn from across the Galician innovation system, Joe argued that economic performance maps closely to business investment. The UK lags behind every other G7 country on business investment as a share of the economy, and NCUB analysis shows that every £1 of public R&D investment returns between £3.09 and £4.02 of private investment over the long term. Universities are central to that: the UK has the highest share of R&D expenditure in higher education across the OECD.
Speaking at the Forum, Joe Marshall said:
“The UK and Galicia are wrestling with the same question: how do you turn a strong research base into business investment and growth? Growth does not come from public investment alone. It comes when business invests, and business invests when the system is easy to navigate and clear about where the country is heading. There is no single model to copy, but there is a great deal to learn from one another. That is the value of forums like IGNICIA.”
Drawing on NCUB’s work with firms of all sizes, Joe described what is holding businesses back. Short policy cycles, a fragmented landscape of overlapping schemes, and a system not wired to demand. For smaller firms the barriers even more acute, with complex processes, limited access to finance and advice, and university on-ramps eroding.
He set out two calls to action to unlock more business-led R&D, based on work by NCUB in their recent R&D Taskforce. Simplify, by consolidating schemes and creating a single digital front door. And focus, on a small number of long-term Industrial Innovation Priorities that align public investment, regulation and skills behind shared missions.
He added:
“Two things would change the picture for British business. Simplify the landscape, so firms are not lost in a maze of overlapping schemes. And focus on a small number of long-term priorities, so that public investment, regulation and skills pull in the same direction.
“As the UK’s collaboration catalyst, NCUB puts partnership between universities and business at the heart of policymaking, so that, together, we build a more prosperous UK.”
Joe also introduced konfer, NCUB’s national platform connecting businesses to research and innovation opportunities across the UK. Delivered with support from Research England, konfer brings together more than 1.5 million experts, publications and facilities, and profiles over 72,000 UK businesses to match them to collaboration opportunities.
National Centre for Universities and Business
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