International research “cannot be replicated through UK-only activity”
International research and innovation provides access to overseas expertise, facilities, datasets, and real-world contexts – and in doing so unlocks forms of economic value which would not be attainable in activity which is purely domestic.
This is according to a new report from the Innovation and Research Caucus, authored by Birkbeck’s Muthu Desilva and Dize Dinckol and Oxford Brookes’ Andrew Watkins. The report is based on lessons drawn from 20 case studies, and sets out various other “misconceptions” about university-driven research and innovation which is international in nature.
These include the idea that cross-border collaboration will “simply add risk or cost” – the authors find that consortia will share costs as they arise while unlocking other funding sources which would not otherwise be available; “when well-designed, these factors enable the returns to outweigh the additional costs and risks.”
The authors also emphasise that international R&I follows iterative, rather than linear, pathways, and will typically involve multiple non-university actors even when formally framed as university-to-university collaboration.
The report, which was commissioned by UKRI, seeks to classify the different ways by which university-driven international R&I creates economic value for the UK. Five different mechanisms are arrived at:
- the production of economically valuable knowledge
- the development of talent through global exposure, which then returns to UK labs, classrooms and companies
- job creation
- the improvement of the UK’s industry and policy operations
- the acceleration of commercialisation, via access to international customers, resources, supply chains and more.
Part of the purpose of the research was to identify means for retaining value from international R&I within the UK. One of the recommendations would see research applications be required to include a scored “UK value capture plan”, and it is suggested that the government should be strategic about the international research it funds:
“International R&I generates globally distinctive economic value for the UK when the case for additionality is clear. This underlines the importance of funding international R&I, where it demonstrably unlocks capabilities, opportunities, resources, infrastructure, datasets, testbeds, standards pathways, or market access that are unavailable domestically.”
The report is the latest in a series from the Innovation and Research Caucus seeking to better assess the benefits of international versus domestic research and innovation activity. Another study, published earlier this month, tracked the performance of UK businesses in UKRI-funded collaborative projects between 2006 and 2023, comparing those which collaborated internationally with those collaborating only domestically.
The research found that international collaboration did bring additional benefits – but that “who gets them, and what kind, varies.”
“Projects funded by Innovate UK tend to boost patenting and design activity; those funded by the Research Councils tend to boost employment, turnover and productivity. The gains are also concentrated in particular places such as high-tech manufacturing and knowledge-intensive services, larger and better-resourced projects, and firms that build international partnerships on top of their domestic ones rather than instead of them.”
Similarly to the first report, the conclusion is that policymakers should be strategic in funding and incentivising international collaboration, with investment targeted towards the businesses most likely to benefit.