6th April, 2021
The Catapult Network Chair, and CEO of Digital Catapult, Dr Jeremy Silver commented:
“It is good to see this recognition of Catapults as a national strategic asset. Over the last ten years, Catapults have been making growing contributions to UK innovation individually and we welcome the encouragement to act more collectively. We will continue to develop our vision to support economic levelling, increase investor confidence and nurture talent that will address national and global challenges, and contribute to recovery and growth.
We will continue to encourage deeper engagement with universities in order to achieve a stronger alignment of incentives and ensure more effective ways of translating research into innovation. We also welcome the opportunity to explore new skills development.
Catapults provide facilities and support to established and early-stage companies that are trail blazers or break the mould in order to stimulate growth in new markets sectors. We build on opportunities not just market failures. So we look forward to further engagement with colleagues across Government, UKRI, and Innovate UK, to review and update our mutual ways of working in order to continue to extract the best value from public investment in R&D and in Catapults.”
The Catapults have led in collectively delivering over 14,000 industry collaborations, over 5000 academic collaborations and supported over 8,000 innovative SMEs across a wide range of sectors and extended international partnership projects.
The main recommendations of the BEIS review report are:
The full report is available to download here.
About the Catapult Network
The Catapult Network supports businesses in transforming great ideas into valuable products and services. We are a Network of world-leading technology and innovation centres established by Innovate UK. We deliver impact across the UK economy, enabling businesses to thrive in global markets. Since inception the Catapults have collectively played a lead role in delivering over 14,000 industry collaborations, over 5000 academic collaborations and supported over 8,000 innovative SMEs across a wide range of sectors and extended international partnership projects.