Neil Carmichael
Main Page: Neil Carmichael (Conservative - Stroud)
Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)
I welcome this excellent statement because it paves the way for more quality and better choice. How will we encourage businesses to co-operate with universities to encourage research and development?
Mr Willetts
There are some barriers here. One of our frustrations—I am sure that we have all come across examples of this—is that small and medium-sized enterprises might like the use of a piece of equipment that they could not afford to buy themselves, or they might like some technical advice on a project, but they do not realise that there is a university in the area that might have that piece of equipment or those technical experts. The SME does not necessarily ever step foot inside the university, and does not know what is available. We want to break down those barriers, and that is what we are looking to Professor Tim Wilson’s review to tackle.