Shaking up the knowledge economy

British researchers may not realise it yet, but they are about to ride to the rescue of the country’s sluggish economy. At least, that’s what the UK government hopes, based on the industrial strategy it outlined in November 2017.

In the strategy, the government pledged to raise the country’s total research and development (R&D) spending from 1.7% to 2.4% of GDP by 2027, and promised an additional £7 billion in research investment by 2022. The goal is to develop technologies and skills that will stimulate economic growth and improve the country’s poor labour productivity (a measure of how much value workers produce per hour).