Recommendation 27

HM Government · verbatim extract Accepted

15.1. The Government recognises the importance of aligning the UK’s R&D spend with our Industrial Strategy priorities. The Industrial Strategy confirms that the Government will prioritise support for innovation towards the eight growth-driving sectors, and the city regions and clusters where they are concentrated, ensuring that they are prioritised by our public funding bodies, such as UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). 15.2. To ensure there is clear institutional leadership, UKRI will be given new objectives to set out its role in delivering government priorities, including enabling innovation, commercialisation, and scale-up across the UK. Innovate UK, as the UK’s innovation agency, will play a central role in accelerating the commercialisation of new technology. We will ensure that the Catapult Network, which Innovate UK funds, is also focused on our Industrial Strategy priorities. 16.1. The Industrial Strategy set out that the Government has committed to expanding our successful Made Smarter Adoption programme across England, with up to £99 million from 2026 to support a further 5,500 small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses to take up new technologies. We will also expand the model to create a dedicated scheme for the Professional and Business Services sector.