Had a double take when I saw this - much of my university research is funded by ARIA but I feel like I never hear of them in the wild so was surprised to see them posting on one of my favourite Substacks!
I agree with what you say about British attitudes to innovation but another big problem is our highly financialised economy driving away scientific and engineering talent. When I graduate next year, I can try and fight with 150 other people per job opening for 1 engineering job, probably paying little over minimum wage in somewhere I don't want to live, or I could have an easier time getting some finance or consultancy job on a decent wage in London. For as long as that is the case the UK is going to bleed away its best scientists and engineers.
I agree. There is a real issue with incentives for early career scientists. You can either take a poorly paid junior lectureship in a UK university or go and get a job for a city firm where you will earn very good money. Additionally, the non-pay incentives to stay in academia (job security, good pension etc) are being eroded due to the perilous state of university finances. This is not helped by the current government's bizarre attitude to universities where they say nice things about the UK's R&D base, but then at the same time seem largely unconcerned that the places where the base is built (universities) face financial turmoil.
Many thanks for this guest post by the way, really enjoyed reading Ilan's take on the R&D ecosystem and the work of ARIA.
I wish you and your fellow believers the best of luck. The important problems in Britain are stated in the previous contributions so I will not repeat them. Many of you will have seen the response by the people in Harvard to Trumps attempts to limit their contributions to science. Public support and funding is by far the best seed corn for these developments and I hope the British government is mindful of its responsibility in this field. The use of the magic share is also needed to prevent the Americans from snapping up every morsel that looks successful.
Interesting article. Financial perspective - it is a question of scale in capital and markets. Two countries dominate in these terms. So if we do something clever in the UK it will more likely be taken forward by businesses that have access to capital and captured markets for its outputs. The US seems to have capital markets that understands tech and; China has a government that direct huge resources at any given technological development they deem fits the broader development or industrial policy proscribed by the CCP leadership. Both have significant markets to deliver outputs. In that regard not being in the EU probably doesn’t help much. I perceive we are not scaled enough as an economy and bereft of a market at scale to benefit much and if we do innovate the benefits will quickly be conferred to the US owners who snaffle up the business or the CCP who will nick the intellectual property. I hope l am dead wrong but coming from the professional investor background that is how l view this in geoeconomics terms.
Had a double take when I saw this - much of my university research is funded by ARIA but I feel like I never hear of them in the wild so was surprised to see them posting on one of my favourite Substacks!
I agree with what you say about British attitudes to innovation but another big problem is our highly financialised economy driving away scientific and engineering talent. When I graduate next year, I can try and fight with 150 other people per job opening for 1 engineering job, probably paying little over minimum wage in somewhere I don't want to live, or I could have an easier time getting some finance or consultancy job on a decent wage in London. For as long as that is the case the UK is going to bleed away its best scientists and engineers.
I agree. There is a real issue with incentives for early career scientists. You can either take a poorly paid junior lectureship in a UK university or go and get a job for a city firm where you will earn very good money. Additionally, the non-pay incentives to stay in academia (job security, good pension etc) are being eroded due to the perilous state of university finances. This is not helped by the current government's bizarre attitude to universities where they say nice things about the UK's R&D base, but then at the same time seem largely unconcerned that the places where the base is built (universities) face financial turmoil.
Many thanks for this guest post by the way, really enjoyed reading Ilan's take on the R&D ecosystem and the work of ARIA.
I wish you and your fellow believers the best of luck. The important problems in Britain are stated in the previous contributions so I will not repeat them. Many of you will have seen the response by the people in Harvard to Trumps attempts to limit their contributions to science. Public support and funding is by far the best seed corn for these developments and I hope the British government is mindful of its responsibility in this field. The use of the magic share is also needed to prevent the Americans from snapping up every morsel that looks successful.
Nice to see some positivity about what we do in this country
It’s a very rare thing to hear or read. Made a nice change
Interesting article. Financial perspective - it is a question of scale in capital and markets. Two countries dominate in these terms. So if we do something clever in the UK it will more likely be taken forward by businesses that have access to capital and captured markets for its outputs. The US seems to have capital markets that understands tech and; China has a government that direct huge resources at any given technological development they deem fits the broader development or industrial policy proscribed by the CCP leadership. Both have significant markets to deliver outputs. In that regard not being in the EU probably doesn’t help much. I perceive we are not scaled enough as an economy and bereft of a market at scale to benefit much and if we do innovate the benefits will quickly be conferred to the US owners who snaffle up the business or the CCP who will nick the intellectual property. I hope l am dead wrong but coming from the professional investor background that is how l view this in geoeconomics terms.