Executive Summary of the Society's submission
The Research and Development Society has conducted two pieces of research that we summarise here for the benefit of the Committee.
Members of the UK Research and Development (R&D) community who responded to our survey in August 2006 on “Science Higher Education in 2015: Employers' current and future skill needs”, want:
- science, technology and mathematics graduates to have experience of the practical application of R&D by applying their skills and academic knowledge through industrial placement or practical projects.
- graduates to have good communication skills and other transferable skills such as teamworking. Respondents identified that these are currently detrimental.
- If possible, a clear way of communicating their needs to the people that determine the contents of undergraduate courses – the majority have no clear way of doing so at present.
The Society has also been consulting widely with leading figures in the UK R&D community (from a variety of sectors and organisation size) on what they thought the future of UK R&D was likely to be and what role the R&D Society could or should have in that future. These are the results from our work to date that are of most relevance to this Inquiry:
- A key future challenge is skills supply – “producing the right scientists in the right numbers.” “There must be a trained workforce with relevant skills at all levels (including technicians and teachers)”. The UK R&D community needs “a properly integrated supply chain from school to degree, to PhD to laboratory”.
- Our main opportunity is our ability to “release value from the knowledge base to increase productivity through greater innovation.” Within that, the interface between academia and industry is key – “Identify national strengths with global relevance (bio, geno, nano, etc) then ensure a functional interface between academic and commercial activity in them.” “Academe must learn that innovation is not merely technology transfer.”
- The R&D community can assist by
a) communicating a “clear description of the benefits to society of R&D”,
b) “instigating more partnerships”, especially between business and academia, and
c) “taking a much broader view of innovation than the development of new products driven by science and technology.”