Source · Select Committees · Science, Innovation and Technology Committee
Recommendation 43
43
Rejected
The Government should commission an independent review examining the link between R&D, new businesses and...
Recommendation
The Government should commission an independent review examining the link between R&D, new businesses and growth in jobs and GDP since 2008, and task it with recommending how to make public investment in R&D increase productivity, growth, and jobs. This should use examples such as Greater Manchester as case studies in raising productivity, to identify lessons for other regions. (Recommendation, Paragraph 132) 50
Government Response Summary
The government rejects the recommendation for an independent review examining the link between R&D, new businesses, and economic growth. It states that a substantial body of existing evidence already addresses these links at national and regional levels.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
The government disagrees with this recommendation but recognises the importance of understanding the economic impacts of public R&D investment. A substantial body of evidence already exists linking public and private R&D investment to productivity and GDP growth at a national level, including work by Oxford Economics (2020 The relationship between public and private R&D funding), Frontier Economics (2023 Rate of Return to Investment in R&D), and DSIT (2025 The value of public R&D) which found that, on average, £1 of civil public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term. There are also academic studies examining firm level impacts of publicly funded R&D, which has informed R&D investment policy over time. At a regional level, National Institute of Economic and Social Research (2021 From Ideas to Growth) research examined drivers of innovation and productivity across firms, regions and industries in the UK, while recently DSIT commissioned the OECD to evidence regional “leverage rates” (2025 Leveraging government R&D investment…). In addition, UKRI completed the Spin-Out Review previously, which looked at the strengths and opportunities to go further to deliver our commercialisation ambitions through our support for spin-out companies.