Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government to which Secretary of State the UK Research and Innovation Board reports.
Answered by Lord Henley
The UKRI Board will report to my Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The UKRI Board’s effectiveness will be reviewed independently on an annual basis. This is in line with the corporate governance code of practice set by the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how often the Industrial Strategy Council will report on the progress of the Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Industrial Strategy Council will be tasked with developing measures of success and putting the right evaluation structures in place to assess our progress. They will engage with government on its work programme but as a non-statutory independent group of external experts they will have their own views about the frequency of their updates including a regular published report.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government to whom the Industrial Strategy Council will be answerable.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Industrial Strategy Council will be tasked with developing measures of success and putting the right evaluation structures in place to assess our progress. They will engage with government on its work programme but as a non-statutory independent group of external experts they will have their own views about the frequency of their updates including a regular published report.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund projects will be permitted to fail.
Answered by Lord Henley
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) projects will bring together world-class UK research with business investment to develop the technologies and industries of the future and ensure we capture the value of these innovations to our economy. Delivered by UKRI, it takes a strategic approach to delivering the challenges across the UK’s science and business base.
Pivotal to the ISCF is an appetite to take risk and pursue high return opportunities, as has been successfully adopted in other schemes, such as America’s DARPA challenges. This means not all ISCF projects may succeed because of technological and market uncertainties. It will be important that there is a broad risk appetite to explore promising ideas across the portfolio of challenges as well as within elements of each specific challenge. The ISCF will place the responsibility for delivering a challenge in the hands of a ‘Challenge Director’, who will be leading a expert in the area. Challenge Directors will assemble a portfolio of projects that span the risk spectrum. Rigorous assessment, encompassing investment appraisal, on-going monitoring and ex-post evaluation will inform investment decisions. Through governance and monitoring arrangements, we will ensure that failures are detected early, review progress and maximise value for money.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what process will be in place for Her Majesty's Government to decide the next areas to benefit from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.
Answered by Lord Henley
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) launched an open call for Expressions of Interest to identify challenges to be supported within wave 3 of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) on 28 February 2018. Funding for wave 3 challenges will start in financial year 2019/20. The EOI process will enable industry to fully engage with the ISCF, including those businesses or sectors that do not traditionally make use of innovation funding.
Expressions of interest for challenges for wave 3 of the ISCF programme must be industry-led and demonstrate clear alignment with at least one of the Grand Challenges of the Industrial Strategy White Paper: Clean Growth; Ageing Society; Future of Mobility; and Artificial Intelligence and Data Economy. Challenges for wave 3 will be evaluated by UKRI based on the following criteria. Challenges must:
As with previous challenges, expert input will be sought in choosing which challenges will be funded through the ISCF. This includes the UKRI Board, Innovate UK and Research Councils, and a series of deep dive sessions with industry and academia across the UK.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will publish their process for selecting the next areas to benefit from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.
Answered by Lord Henley
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) launched an open call for Expressions of Interest to identify challenges to be supported within wave 3 of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) on 28 February 2018. The Expression of Interest process is being managed by UKRI using Innovate UK’s Innovation Funding Service (https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/126/overview). This webpage clearly outlines the assessment criteria for the challenges. Details of the wave 3 process will also be made available at the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund website https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/industrial-strategy-challenge-fund-joint-research-and-innovation.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund money can be spent on basic research.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) funds innovative science and research that will increase productivity, tackle long-term challenges and drive growth across the country in areas where the UK is most competitive or has the most potential to be competitive. It identifies challenges that if solved would turn the UK’s scientific and business expertise into leadership in international markets. Each of these challenges will bring together Innovate UK and Research Councils to support collaborations of business with research, and so funding will benefit both. The exact balance will require tailored financial arrangement suited to the nature of the challenges.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what processes are used by Innovate UK to confirm that all parties listed in a project application have consented to their inclusion in that project.
Answered by Lord Henley
Applicants must individually agree to their personal data and some specific, commercially sensitive project outputs being shared in exchange for being awarded grant. The lead participant cannot sign up to this on an organisation’s behalf, and without that buy-in the project cannot proceed. Similarly, the applicant briefing events and documentation clearly state that an application must show genuine evidence of collaboration.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what recourse a business has if it finds that it has been falsely cited by a third party in a bid application to Innovate UK.
Answered by Lord Henley
Innovate UK will act speedily to review the allegation and if found to be true, they would pull the application and mark it ineligible.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they would be willing to accept the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the EU over civil nuclear co-operation during any transitional period after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Lord Henley
The way in which the UK envisages a transition or implementation period operating was set out in my Rt Hon Friend the Prime Minister’s Florence speech. The priority is to get the right arrangements for our relationship with the EU in the long term and we want to get there in a smooth and orderly way, with minimum disruption.
That is why we want swift agreement on an implementation period, based on the existing structure of rules and regulations, so that there is one set of changes for businesses and people. That may mean that we start off with the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) still governing the rules we are part of for that period, but the Government is also clear that if we can bring forward a new dispute resolution mechanism at an earlier stage we will do so.
In the recent BEIS Select Committee enquiry into the impact of leaving the EU on the nuclear sector, my department noted that it had been unable to find any ECJ cases on Euratom that involved the UK. I would like to take the opportunity to correct this, as two or three such cases have been identified.