Catapults under review
Innovate UK is seeking to ensure that the country has “the right mix of catapults” to match the government’s industrial strategy ambitions. Executive chair Tom Adeyoola told the House of Commons science committee this week that there was an issue with the “connectivity” between businesses and the Catapult network.
The Financial Times has previously reported that the network’s performance is under review, with an anonymous government official telling the newspaper that it was “no secret” that different catapults have “wildly varying performances.” This was confirmed in this week’s UKRI strategy and delivery plan:
“As a key delivery partner for our strategy, we are reviewing our portfolio of Innovate UK Catapults to ensure alignment with Industrial Strategy growth sectors. We will make decisions about any changes to our portfolio this year.”
Adeyoola told the committee that upon taking up the role last spring, he had “challenged” each catapult to provide evidence of how its work aligned with the industrial strategy and Innovate’s mission. He said that previously catapults had been measured against each other “in a way which did not make sense.”
This remark was reinforced by other comments he made about the funder’s previous operating approach. He referred to Innovate UK as having been an “extremely complicated organisation to understand from the outside,” describing his impression of an “organisation of cats” in which staff following their own interpretation of what they felt the the funder should be doing.
Committee member Emily Darlington, Labour MP for Milton Keynes Central, pushed for an answer on whether some catapults might have to move location to support innovation clusters. Adeyoola suggested that he was first and foremost concerned with whether there was the “right mix” of catapults, stressing that they were a “delivery mechanism of Innovate UK” which needed to be seen as part of the funder’s overall approach to supporting innovation across the country.
On the question of whether a formal review was already taking place, Adeyoola pointed out that the next catapult funding period would start from 2028, saying that “we are now in that process where it is the beginning of the review of the previous funding period and we are lining up to be ready for the next funding period.” He added that over the course of the next year, this review process would have “flowed through” and he would be in a position to discuss its findings with the committee.
The Financial Times reported that the network was currently seen as “spreading the jam too thinly,” with too much variance in size and levels of private sector funding attracted.