Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will provide a list of all publicly-owned testing centres for innovation.

We want the UK to be the world’s most innovative economy and through the Industrial Strategy we have an ambition to raise total R&D investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027, and 3% in the longer term.

There is no single definition or list of government supported testing centres for innovation. However, the government supports innovation through a number of mechanisms including:

• Public Sector Research Establishments are research and development institutes. An example is the National Physical Laboratory, developing and maintaining national measurement standards.
• The Catapult Network which helps to bridge the gap between business, academia, research and Government.
• Advanced Propulsion Centre facilitates funding to UK-based R&D projects developing low-carbon emission powertrain technologies.
• The Aerospace Technology Institute identifies global opportunities for UK organisations in research and technology.
• The Knowledge Transfer Network provides innovation networking for businesses.