The role of intermediate Research, Development and Innovation institutes in building regional and sectoral

Introduction and context The role of science and technology in promoting productivity growth is influenced, not just by the overall share of resources – public and private - devoted to research and development, but by the shape of the institutional landscape in which those resources are deployed. [...] One of the goals of the Nurse Review was to “identify whether improvements to the organisational research landscape are required to deliver the government’s objective for the UK to be a science superpower at the forefront of critical and emerging fields of science and technology, and drive economic growth and societal benefit”. [...] The purpose of this note is to draw attention to the wider range of functions and activities that analogous institutions carry out in other nations, and – also building on what suggested by the Review – to point at important lessons for the evolution of the Catapult Network and the development of other intermediate research institutions across the regions and nations of the UK. [...] Three potential factors have recently come into prominence: • The focus of government policy for some decades has been on the creation of new knowledge, rather than the diffusion of existing techniques at the technology frontier and the creation of the capacity of national and regional economies to absorb new technologies29. [...] Although there is a difference between the applied research needed for the development of new technology, and the kinds of activities that support the demonstration and application of existing technologies, there isn’t always a clear division between those institutes/centres that are involved in technology development, in application demonstration, and in the diffusion of innovation.