Have the Spending Review and Industrial Strategy delivered for research clusters?

Over decades of experience in developing research clusters, we’ve seen how bringing the best talent and infrastructure together in one place can drive scientific discoveries, create skilled jobs and boost the economy.

That’s why we were excited last autumn when the UK Government announced plans to put life sciences and research clusters at the core of their Industrial Strategy. Since then, we’ve been working to guide their approach with our Clusters: Investing for Impact report and expert webinar.

Now the Spending Review and Industrial Strategy have been published, we’re glad to say the Government has taken on board our proposals and set out a clear approach with the potential to accelerate development of more world-leading clusters.

Read on for our analysis – supported with insights shared during our webinar – and a chance to catch up on the webinar itself.

What did we want to see?

To make sure that research clusters can help deliver real improvements in cancer prevention and care, Clusters: Investing for Impact set out how governments (at national, devolved and local levels) should:

take a targeted, strategic, and long-term approach to developing research clusters, identifying places with potential to be world-leading and concentrating investment.
develop clusters in partnership between governments (national, devolved and local) and local research actors.
tailor support to the specific strengths and needs of the area, including ensuring the local infrastructure and environment can attract and accommodate a cluster.
ensure the health of the wider R&D environment in the UK, including access to funding and talent.
develop inter-cluster connections to spread benefits.

What is in the plans?

The Industrial Strategy shows that the Government understands the need to take this approach, setting out policies to invest in locally-led cluster growth, encourage partnership, support the R&D system and back local infrastructure.

Targeted investment, working in partnership on a local level

The strategy indicates a shift towards concentrating efforts and investments to develop and support clusters in specific areas with high potential. We think this is particularly key in a challenging fiscal environment as it stops efforts from being spread too thinly.

The Government are backing the new approach with the launch of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Local Innovation Partnerships fund, first announced by Dame Jessica Corner in our webinar, which includes £500m designed to support locally-led cluster growth. There is a real opportunity for the fund to enable effective development of clusters by partnering across local government, industry and universities, building on local strengths and ensuring tailored support.

UKRI is committed to strengthening research and innovation in clusters in key locations across the UK, connecting people, ideas, sectors, building partnerships with business.

I think it's a really exciting time and a completely transformational way of the Government, funding agencies and institutions working closely together. There’s this absolute consciousness that it's not just research excellence, it's all the downstream benefits of having the agglomeration effect - the effect of building clusters on the economy, on society and for the benefit of citizens of the UK.

- Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Executive Chair of Research England and Executive Champion for Place for UKRI

Inter-cluster collaboration has also been boosted, with £150m of the Local Innovation Partnerships fund being invested in the ‘supercluster’ of life sciences between Liverpool, Manchester and Cheshire, as well as clear intentions to connect the Oxford to Cambridge corridor to other parts of the UK. We’ve seen how clusters mutually benefit from tapping into each other’s strengths – whether access to talent, infrastructure or space to develop – so this is another positive step.

Investing in the wider local environment

The £2.5bn put behind the delivery of East West Rail and supporting housing developments to unlock the potential of the Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor is also welcome. This shows the Government understands the need to take a holistic approach to developing clusters – making sure the local area has the capacity to attract and retain talent and research organisations. This approach should be applied across the UK, tailored to local needs, to realise the potential of more places to be world leading.

It's always easier if something is nearby. It's much easier to work with somebody that you can just walk down the street to, or even down the corridor. But of course, important collaborations exist across geographies and that also has been recognised and that is why one of the first statements for the Industrial Strategy was the Oxford-Cambridge link. Transport is one of those particularly important things that we've been discussing in [terms of] the attractiveness of the local environment.

- Dame Nancy Rothwell, deputy chair of the Department of Business and Trade Industrial Strategy Advisory Council

Protecting the health of the R&D system

As we set out in our report, clusters are dependent on the health of the overall research system.

Putting R&D – particularly life sciences – at the heart of the Industrial Strategy is a great step, but with real-terms flat cash committed in the Spending Review, it may be challenging to deliver on these ambitions in a sector that is already struggling. This is particularly pertinent for universities, which are cornerstones of discovery research and major nodes in clusters. You can find out more in our article on what the Spending Review means for science and research.

Investing in talent

To develop more clusters in the UK that can compete on a global scale, we need world-leading talent. The Industrial Strategy sets out a £1.2bn increase in annual investment into skills, including support for local plans to ensure clusters can develop the talent they need.

The £54m Global Talent fund to help bring in research teams from other countries signals that the UK is also proactively welcoming talent, and will have a material impact, alleviating the burden of high immigration costs, which we know make the UK less attractive for international researchers. However, only 10 research organisations are receiving funding. Efforts to improve access to the Global Talent visa, announced in the Immigration White Paper, should help on a broader scale, but high costs remain a barrier, and this strategy does not reduce those.

Professor David Argyle, who is helping spearhead the development of a multidisciplinary biomedical research cluster across Scotland and the North East, highlighted in the webinar how wider factors like transport links and, partnerships across universities, the NHS and industry could help attract talent in a “positive feedback loop” that accelerates health advancements.

What’s next?

We’re still waiting on the Life Sciences Sector Plan, as well as the Government’s long-term plans for the NHS and cancer services. These must work together to tackle the biggest barriers facing cancer research today and improve patient outcomes. Government must work with charities to deliver this.

Cluster development takes years and requires long-term commitments to support the positive feedback loop that can make clusters self-sustaining. To compete internationally, this needs to be balanced with careful evaluation of when resources may not be used most effectively. We feel these strategies are a good step towards this approach, but we will have to see if they work in practice.

Major research infrastructure investment is also key in helping snowball clusters. This is why we’re making the case for a new major multidisciplinary institute in Scotland, to drive the expansion of a biomedical research cluster across Scotland and the North East.

Looking back on our webinar

In May, we brought experts on place-based research together for a webinar to give their reflections on Clusters: Investing for Impact. They also shared their insights on what makes clusters successful and the opportunities governments have to support that success.

We heard from:

Dame Nancy Rothwell, who is helping shape UK Government strategy on place, skills and innovation as the Deputy Chair of the Department of Business and Trade Industrial Strategy Advisory Council.
Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Executive Chair of Research England and Executive Champion for Place for UKRI. 
Professor David Argyle, Vice Principal and Head of College for Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he is working on the biomedical research cluster across Scotland and the North East mentioned above.

Cancer News

What did we want to see?

What is in the plans?