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PSA 4. Promote world class science and innovation in the UK

Vision

World-class science and innovation in the UK are crucial to maintaining economic prosperity and responding to the challenges and opportunities of globalisation. In the global knowledge economy the UK's competitive advantage will rely on the ingenuity and capabilities of the UK population and will be dependent on the UK having an innovation system that can take advantage of the opportunities on offer.

As well as maintaining the UK's prosperity, science and innovation play a vital part in addressing key global and domestic challenges, such as climate change and security. Science and innovation also deliver improvements in public service delivery and contribute to improvements in areas such as education, health and culture.

The delivery of this PSA is underpinned by six priorities for achieving world class UK science and innovation:

World class research at the UK's strongest centres of excellence and sustainable and financially robust universities and research institutes across the UK.
Greater responsiveness of the publicly-funded research base to the needs of the economy and public services.
Increased business investment in R&D and increased business engagement with the UK science base for ideas and talent.
A strong supply of Scientists, Engineers and Technologists.
Confidence and increased awareness across UK society in scientific research and its innovative applications.
Improving the use and management of science and innovation across Government.

Measurement

Six measures have been chosen to measure performance for this PSA:

Indicator 1 - The UK percentage share of citations in the leading scientific journals
Indicator 2 - Amount of income generated by UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs) through research, consultancy and licensing of intellectual property
Indicator 3 - The percentage of UK business with 10 or more employees that are "innovation active"
Indicator 4 - The annual number of UK PhD completers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects
Indicator 5 - The number of young people in England taking "A" Levels in mathematics, physics, chemistry and biological sciences
Indicator 6 - Business research and development (R&D) expenditure - the average UK R&D intensity in the six most R&D intensive industries, relative to the US, Japan, France and Germany

Target by 2011

None of the above indicators have been assigned specific targets to be achieved by 2011. Rather, the aim is to maintain the UK's relative share or level of take up and achievement.