During his presentation at TechUK’s Tech Policy conference in London, science and technology minister Peter Kyle unveiled investments, reforms and appointments to drive innovation and boost the economy.
Technology is set to play a pivotal role in the government’s industrial strategy called Invest 2035. The government’s greenpaper on a 10-year industrial strategy notes that the economy has faced significant shocks in recent years and has had a poor productivity record over the past decade and a half, consistently investing less than its international peers, and lagging on the performance of city regions outside London and the South-East.
Kyle said: “Everywhere you see, there is an imbalance of power in this country which has – for too long – made it impossible to imagine a better future for Britain. To deliver our Plan for Change, we have to shift the balance of power away from stagnation and old ideas towards innovation and opportunity, and to the bold people building a new future for Britain.”
AI, semiconductors, cyber security and quantum technologies are among the promising technology developments that could drive growth in the UK economy. But direct support, which includes public sector funding, is likely to be needed to stimulate these sectors.
The government’s greenpaper on its industrial strategy, published in October 2024, calls for a targeted strategy where the government takes a deliberate and targeted approach towards growth-driving sectors and places. The approach requires temporary government support to scale up industries, particularly those with potential for global competitiveness.
The greenpaper urges the government to focus on a range of technologies and their commercialisation, with a portfolio approach that backs smaller, less proven and more disruptive businesses alongside larger, well-established businesses.
The aim of such support is to provide a stimulus to enable innovative businesses and startups to get the funding they require to scale up. Direct government intervention is seen as a way to reduce uncertainty and support the development of critical sector-specific knowledge, and crowd in private capital to growth-driving sectors.
Direct government support, according to the greenpaper, also encourages competitive and innovative business ecosystems, particularly in industries with low market dynamism and high barriers to entry, and can be used to identify the importance of strong supply chain linkages between sectors.
One example of such direct support is the Quantum Missions Pilot, which aims to accelerate quantum computing and quantum networking technologies. During his TechUK speech, Kyle announced winners of Innovate UK’s Quantum Missions Pilot, each of whom is set to receive a share of £12m to help accelerate the real-world impact of quantum computing and quantum networking technologies.
The government also said it will be investing £23m in edge telecoms research and deployment to expand mobile coverage for people and businesses across Britain.
As Computer Weekly has previously reported, during his TechUK speech, Kyle announced an overhaul in how AI experiments and other digital projects are funded in the public sector. The government hopes the overhaul will simplify the process to cut down waste in taxpayer funding.
He also named David Willetts, who served as science minister from 2010 to 2014, as the first chair of the Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO). The RIO’s goal is to ensure the UK’s regulatory regime can keep pace with innovation.
