Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent steps Innovate UK has taken to encourage (a) businesses and (b) universities to collaborate with each other.

Innovate UK (IUK) encourages and supports collaboration between businesses and universities. IUK funds the Catapults to support business innovation and drive collaboration in supply chains throughout the economy. Between 2013 and 2022, Catapults established over 5,000 academic and 18,000 industry collaborations. IUK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) enables early career researchers to work with business on their research priorities and supports 885 projects (as of FY22/23), partnering with 105 universities, colleges, and research organisations. 78% of KTP projects are with SMEs. IUK’s Knowledge Transfer Networks also bring together experts from industry, academia and finance to support businesses to access cutting-edge research.