High technology businesses will be adversely affected by the government’s cuts to the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) yesterday, a leading scientist has suggested.
Chief executive of the Institute of Physics (IOP) Dr Robert Kirby-Harris expressed surprise that the Small Business Research Initiative has been classed as an efficiency saving.
Dr Kirby-Harris said “now, more than ever, innovative small businesses need the kind of support that the SBRI can provide”. The announcement was made as part of the government’s £6bn savings programme, for which £836m was taken from the BIS budget.
The SBRI programme was created to engage companies in competitions for ideas that would lead to short term development contracts being awarded for winning businesses to work with government departments. Government department or public sector bodies then become the lead customer for products and technologies developed.
“We appreciate the pressures on the public purse,” said Dr Kirby-Harris, “but stand firm in our belief that an investment in science and engineering, in universities and in businesses, offers the best path through these difficult times.”
Dr Kirby-Harris’ comments followed the government’s pledge to protect investment in research, innovation, business and enterprise, and student numbers in higher education.
Other science projects were also affected by the cuts announced yesterday, with the £18m set aside for the Institute of Web Sciences, created for the British creator of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, to carry out research into semantic web technologies, stopped.
An additional £233m will be saved this year by spreading investment in a UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation (UKCMRI) – a biomedical research facility in London – over six years.