email:  stephenladymanmp@souththanetlabour.org.uk

After the Tories let British science go to rack and ruin, Labour is building up the British research base:

 

· Labour has more than doubled the science budget over the past ten years, from £1.3 billion (1997) to £3.4 billion (2007). The science budget will continue to rise above inflation reaching almost £4 billion by 2010/11.

· Labour is increasing spending on medical research by 30% over the next 3 years. It will receive over £1.9 billion over the next three years from the science budget to fund both basic and translational research.

· Labour is funding a number of multi-disciplinary research programmes, including a major contribution to the £1 billion “Living with Environmental Change” programme; a new research programme on ageing; and increased investment in energy research and stem cells.

· Labour’s funding for R&D (including Higher Education Funding Councils and Research Councils) stood at £7.4bn in 2006.

· Labour has provided £2.3 billion of support for business through R&D tax credits during the first six years of the scheme that began in 2000.

· Labour is supporting knowledge transfer, including through the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), which will receive £150M a year by 2010/11 to strengthen links between academia and business and help take research to the market.

· Labour has increased capital expenditure through the Science Research Investment Fund (£500M per annum) and Full Economic Costing (£200M per annum), has significantly improved the research infrastructure in universities.

· In 2006/07, the total resources made available under the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) was £2.3 billion. The value of contracts made with SMEs was £136.9M, representing nearly 6% of the baseline budget.

 

Our investment is working – Britain is recognised as a world class science base

 

· A fifth of the world’s current top selling medicines were discovered and developed in the UK.

· Britain is the sixth largest manufacturing economy in the world.

· With just 1% of the world’s population, UK produces 9% of all scientific papers and receives 12% of all citations. UK is second only to US on the majority of leading scientific indicators.

· Between 1992 and 2003, the percentage of UK research papers with international co-authorship doubled, from 20% to 40%.

· In 2005-06, over 40% of students studying for PhDs came from overseas. Labour has established joint ventures with business to solve challenges facing the world

 

· The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has been created to have an important leadership role. It will develop and lead a strategic programme worth £1 billion over the next three years:

à The TSB will be investing £100M in eight collaborative R&D technology areas – Materials for Energy; Technologies for Health; Advanced Lighting, Lasers and Displays; High Value Manufacturing; and Gathering Data in Complex Environments, Low Carbon Energy, Cell Therapy and the Creative Industry.

à - Five Innovation Platforms. An Innovation Platform creates the opportunity to bring together key partners (Government and business) to address a major societal challenge and to open up market opportunities to increase business investment in R&D and innovation:

_            Intelligent Transport Systems and Services

_            Low Impact Buildings

_            Network Security

_            Assisted Living

_            Low Carbon Vehicles

 

· The Energies Technologies Institute was established as a 50:50 partnership between business and Government to raise up to £1 billion over ten years for low carbon energy R&D.

· Public sector commitment announced publicly by DIUS (up to £50M per annum for 10 years) and DfT (up to £5M per annum for the CSR period to 2011).

· Six companies already signed up (BP, Shell, E.ON UK, EDF Energy, Rolls-Royce and Caterpillar) creating the current capacity of up to £30M pa for matching by the public sector.

· Labour has invested over £20m to create 10 Science Learning Centres - 1 national centre and 9 regional centres in conjunction with the Wellcome Trust. A further £10m over 5 years has been allocated for Project Enthuse, a scheme that covers the cost of teachers to attend courses at the national Science Learning Centre.

· The DIUS-funded Science and Engineering Ambassadors (SEAs) programme now has over 18,000 individuals registered as SEAs and acting as role models within schools across the UK.

· Latest UCAS figures for acceptances onto degree courses in 2007 show rises in some key STEM subjects in excess of the overall average increase for all subjects of 6.4% (Mathematics up by 9.1%; Chemistry 8.9%;

· Physics 12.4%). Some areas of engineering also showing above average increases.

· PhD stipends paid by Research Councils have risen by almost 45% (from £9,000 to nearly £13,000 and just over £13,000 to study subjects of recruitment difficulty – including some scientific subjects) since 2002 and have more than doubled since 1999 (when they stood at £6,500).