Falling short on the innovation challenge

It is now widely acknowledged that innovation is absolutely critical to the success of manufacturing in the UK. Developing and enhancing revenue from new or improved products, processes and services is essential as competition from lower cost countries becomes more intense. Investment in innovation has been stepped up but recent reports have confirmed that the UK is still lagging behind Europe. Factors such as lack of available finance, skills shortage and a failure to collaborate effectively with academia are all cited as reasons for our failure to capitalise on the growing investment. Research shows UK companies are giving an increased priority to innovation and they realise that it is absolutely critical to their competitiveness. It has been apparent for some time that UK industry has woken up to the fact that it must innovate to survive, but the stark fact is that it is still lagging behind both our European partners, the United States and the emerging Far Eastern competition. Efforts must be stepped up to ensure that government investment in science and research benefits the manufacturing community and that we have the courage to make commercial use of the innovations developed.