Mandelson Promises £80 Million – For Innovation, Not Cappucino

Business secretary Lord Mandelson has promised £82.5 million for the development of new technologies, but has been criticised for not pushing harder for fibre instead of copper.

“Britain is the original innovation nation,” Lord Mandelson told Innovate09, a conference run by the government’s Technology Strategy Board – the body set up to manage tech-related stimulus money. He said innovation will be crucial to recovery, but strategists needed to get beyond the idea that there is a “cappucino drinking creative class.”

Mandelson’s £82.5 million promise included £39.5 for fields such as regenerative medicine, transport and logistics, agriculture, infectious diseases and low carbon housing. Lord Mandelson said it would allow Britain to get ahead in these fields.

Up to £50 million in five years will go for an ‘Innovation Platform’ in sustainable agriculture, with the help of Defra and the Biotechnology and Biological
Sciences Research Council (BBSRC),.

In his speech he also re-announced the Innovation Investment Fund with which the government plans to use a £150million seed fund to raise £1 billion of private investment.and that “knowledge is the raw material and innovation is the refinement.”

When Lord Mandelson mentioned copper infrastructure in passing, delegates tweeted this was not very innovative: “Copper is obsolete and useless, meant for voice not broadband,” commented fibre-fan @cyberdoyle.

“In difficult times it’s crucial that we capitalise on economic opportunities and invest in our future,” said Lord Mandelson. “That’s why the Technology Strategy Board prioritises investments in expertise and technologies that offer prospects for growth or address major challenges.”

The Technology Strategy Board, headed by IBM engineer Graham Spittle, has the job of spending stimulus money earmarked for innovation – Spittle told the conference that, of $2.8 trillion committed round the world to stimulus packages, around ten percent will be put into innovation related. “We have the opportunity here, but we’ve got to choose to transform,” said Spittle.