Industrial Strategy White Paper

27 November 2017

Commenting on the publication of the Industrial Strategy White Paper, Russell Group head of policy Jessica Cole said:

“The papers will be full of the happy news about the royal wedding tomorrow, but the Industrial Strategy will have far more of an impact on the future of our country.

“Ministers are right to be ambitious for the UK economy and the focus on investing in both people and research is welcome. Building on the substantial success that we have had in science will be fundamental if we are to achieve the goals set out in the Industrial Strategy.

“Before the Budget we called on the Government to increase Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) to £250m annually. Confirmation that Ministers will meet this target by 2020-21 is good news. Boosting funding for quality-related research will also help ensure our university sector can support work in new fields and remain internationally competitive.

“The benefits of our world-class higher education system are spread right across the country. Russell Group universities support 261,000 jobs around the UK and have a crucial role to play in delivering the strategy set out today.”

Related case studies

From test tube to drug delivery – joint research by AstraZeneca and Glasgow

The University of Glasgow is working with global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to speed up the development of new medicines based on fundamental breakthroughs in science. The goal of the three-year collaboration is to identify new pathways by which inflammation can promote diseases and ultimately create better medicines for patients.

Read more >

Graphene: the transformative new material driving economic growth

The discovery of graphene at the University of Manchester has led to a rapid global take-up of new technologies, with at least $200 million in recent commercial investment being made in graphene production across 210 companies.

Read more >