The Lib Dem vision for science and innovation

As part of the Liberal Democrats party conference in Brighton, Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper has published a policy paper on growth, with various proposals relevant to science, research and innovation.

The paper rounds up commitments which the party has previously made – not least in its spring conference motion on universities – as well as setting out new thinking. Policies are not costed, and therefore not guaranteed to make it into a general election manifesto.

The Lib Dems have already trailled their intention to split the Treasury into a growth department and another body focused on management of the public finances. The new publication explains that the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade would be folded into the Department for Growth.

The party has also recently been advocating for the UK to issue defence bonds, which we learn here would be for spending on both defence capital expenditure and defence-related R&D.

A central part of the Lib Dem vision for growth comes from scaling and retaining companies, in a way which is notably similar to what we have heard from the government in recent months:

“Britain is brilliant at creating new businesses. The problem is that we are far less successful at helping them grow into global champions on our shores. Too often, innovative British firms reach a critical stage of growth and relocate overseas, particularly to the United States, where access to capital, talent and commercial support can be easier to find.”

The party also want to review the whole landscape of innovation agencies and business support. This is accompanied by a more specific commitment: to “further simplify Innovate UK’s complex grant-making process.”

The Lib Dems are keen to move (in the longer term) to a model where academics own their IP by default, and in the meantime to introduce standardised frameworks for intellectual property. These are both commitments rolled over from the party’s previous policy position on universities, as is the quintupling of proof-of-concept funding to £200m over five years.

That earlier publication also wanted to restore 80 per cent full economic costing for research, and create a network of “regional innovation centres” across the UK. These policies are not included in the new growth paper – but we do learn that the party wants to roll out the “Northern Gritstone university-affiliated-fund model” across all regions.