Increasing the Economic Impact of the Research Councils
At the request of the Director General of Science and Innovation, Sir Keith O’Nions, the Economic Impact Group were asked to make recommendations as to how Research Councils can deliver - and demonstrate that they are delivering - a major increase in the economic impact of their investments.
The report’s recommendations can be condensed into three key issues for Research Councils:
- their leadership of the knowledge transfer agenda;
- their role in influencing knowledge transfer behaviour of universities and Research Council Institutes;
- increasing their engagement with user organisations
The report recognises that Research Councils have pivotal roles, both as funding bodies and as leaders of the research base. It adds that Councils are already increasing their emphasis on knowledge transfer and the economic impact of their work but must increase this emphasis further without sacrificing the research excellence for which the UK is rightly admired.
Around 80% of the Science Budget is currently delivered through the eight Research Councils. In light of the Comprehensive Spending Review, this was an appropriate time to investigate the current economic impacts of Research Council activity and to recommend how these impacts can be substantially increased in the future.
The group was comprised of senior academics, Research Council chief executives and business leaders.
The report can be downloaded through the link in the ‘Related Documents’ section
(243KB)