Science & Innovation
The UK has always had a transformational role in innovation, technology and science. Our long-standing traditions in these fields have resulted in the UK being awarded a highly enviable reputation for invention and discovery.
The UK is proud of promoting a business climate that attracts individuals, institutions and companies at the leading edge of their sectors, with the potential to achieve a wider global impact. Historically, the UK has produced a wide variety of important inventions that have improved the quality of life for millions of people across the globe - and continue to do so. For example, it was the UK’s Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone and John Baird, who invented the television set. The steam engine, the light bulb and penicillin were all invented in the UK.
Today, four the world’s top ten universities are based in the UK.UK expenditure on research and development increased to £25.4 billion in 2007, up by 9% on the previous year. The UK has 1% of the world's population, yet produces 9% of the world's papers, 12% of its scientific citations, publishes 13% of those with highest impact and has more Nobel prize winners per head of population than any other country. Indeed UK scientists claim around 10% of the international science prizes each year. Five of the world’s top 20 best selling pharmaceuticals were developed in the UK and one fifth of all global medicines are developed in the UK.
The UK is also a world leader in scientific discovery and technology advancement, like bionic limbs (for example, the world’s first commercially available multi-articulating bionic hand was British) and genetic cloning. The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the designer of the iPod Jonathan Ive are both British.
In the UK, we believe that Science and Innovation are crucially important in resolving issues that affect life on earth. Furthermore, science also has a vital role to play in providing trusted and impartial reference points based on leading, openly published research. This engenders trust in technologies for both industry and the public at large, as well as in policy-making decisions and regulation arising from new technologies.
It is no co-incidence that the UK holds the position of top recipient of research and development-based investment in Europe. This is because we have built the best possible environment for innovation to succeed. This has helped the UK deliver massive projects with major design challenges such as the Airbus and the Hadron Colider.
In the UK we firmly believe that support for science and innovation will be central to success in the recovery of the global economy. Therefore we have focused our scientific research to deliver more holistic solutions, and have a network of skills and delivery systems to meet customer needs. We need to make use of design, research and development to add value to manufacturing and believe in open innovation as a core principle.
UK laboratory based research now starts with the needs of the end-user in mind, whether they are a customer, a government or even humanity as a whole.
Research and innovation lies at the heart of the UK’s productivity and growth:
--- research to generate new knowledge and ideas and develop highly skilled people
--- innovation to put this knowledge to work, delivering new goods, services and public benefits
These capabilities are inherent both in the UK’s technology departments of universities and individual companies, both large and small. Our strong tradition of collaboration between universities and industry delivers a competitive advantage not just within the UK, but also globally.
In the UK we have a rapidly expanding interest in partnering with China to get the best from each other through co-operation on innovation practice and policy. In this way we can get the best out of research co-operation, dealing with key global challenges. For example, climate change, infectious disease and sustainable development.
The Shanghai World Expo provides a unique opportunity to share scientific knowledge and to learn about innovative ideas from each other in pursuing common solutions to shared problems.
The Shanghai World Expo provides a unique opportunity to share scientific knowledge and to learn about innovative ideas from each other in pursuing common solutions to shared problems.
Please click HERE to watch videos and learn from Chinese people experienced in working for the Science and Innovation sector in the UK.
