Government warned to maintain funding for tech centres

The government has been warned that it must maintain permanent core funding for UK Technology and Innovation Centres (TICs) to prevent them becoming dominated by private sector needs.

The key recommendation in a unanimous but controversial report from an influential parliamentary committee directly contradicts a call from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) for a bigger funding role for the private sector.

The Commons Science and Technology Committee, chaired by Labour MP Andrew Miller, said a government pledge of £200m over four years for TICs "is welcome and provides an acceptable foundation for this new initiative".

The MPs said that the danger of centres suffering from a lack of core funding and becoming "too dependent on commercial income" was made all to clear by the example of the Faraday Partnerships set up in the 1990s to improve the transfer of technology from academia to business. The UK scheme was set up to emulate the successful German Fraunhofer organisation.

The report said the partnerships found it increasingly difficult to access public money as they shifted towards carrying out research that industry was interested in funding.

The MPs warned: "If the centres become self-funded, we fear that the research priorities would be set by those providing the funding, rather than aligning with strategic national priorities."

The committee urged the government to investigate setting up an endowment to ensure future funding and seek cross-party commitment to the TICs, and it voiced concern at the prospect of future reductions in core funding.

It wanted to ensure continuance of a formula that comprises one third public, one third competitive grants and one third business funding.

The CBI, in a response to the government proposals, said the one third cap was "too rigid" and head of enterprise and innovation Tim Bradshaw said private sector funding should range from 25 to 55 per cent, claiming this would "drive greater innovation and growth".

The Technology Strategy Board expects to assess proposals for a first phase of centres to come into existence over the coming year (2011 to 2012) with a second phase the year after drawn from six candidate areas, including ICT and electronics, photonics and electrical systems.