Science, with international collaboration, is helping to extend our understanding of the world around us. Science and innovation drive our economic prosperity and provide some of the tools and solutions to help resolve environmental and economic issues we face, such as climate change and energy supplies
A strong UK science base and an innovative academic and commercial high technology sector are essential for the competitiveness of the UK. In a rapidly globalising world, we will not be able to compete with lower wage-cost economies on the technologies of today. We need to constantly develop the products, processes and services of tomorrow using the latest science and technology.
We need to be an Innovation Nation.
The UK is well placed to rise to this challenge. We start from a position of strength, with world class universities and research institutes, second only to the United States in the number of highly-cited scientific papers. We also have a highly innovative commercial base. But we will increasingly depend on international partnerships and collaborations to sustain these strengths as more and more countries acquire the capacity for leading edge R&D.
