Press release -The taxpayer tech dividend: R&D grants provide £43bn economic boost 7 September 2017
8 September 2017
7th September 2017
The taxpayer tech dividend: R&D grants provide £43bn economic boost, study finds
• Largest ever study shows public R&D grants turbo-charge growth in UK’s industries of the future
• Innovation grants stimulated £43bn additional turnover and created estimated 150,000 jobs
• Employment is boosted by around a fifth, turnover by a quarter – but regional variations are substantial
Taxpayer support for high-tech innovation benefits the economy by significantly boosting jobs, turnover and productivity among the companies backed, new research has found.
Over a 13-year period, R&D grants spurred growth worth £43bn to the British economy – more than five times the £8bn invested – and created around 150,000 jobs.
But the study - the largest and most comprehensive of its kind, carried out by the Enterprise Research Centre – also found big variations in the types of firms most likely to benefit from grants, as well as regional differences in the strength of the effects.
Scientific and technological innovation is seen by the Government as a key plank of its new industrial strategy.
