INTRODUCTION

  British Steel plc is the EU's largest manufacturer and distributor of steel. British Steel spent £45 million on research and development in 1996/7. The following outline memorandum responds to the terms of reference included in the letter of enquiry from the Science & Technology Committee dated 27 January 1998.

MEMORANDUM

  1.  As an overall statement, British Steel's decisions on developing new products are not significantly influenced by the industrial application of Government funded research. However, the company would look to obtain such funding if there were a gap in fundamental understanding which needed to be bridged to facilitate the progress of a new product development. By the same token, British Steel would look to Government Laboratories to fill gaps in pre-competitive fundamental understanding (although the company would be more likely, given its field of operations, to work with a university).

  2.  British Steel's collaboration with universities has increased recently, based in part on the operation of Government schemes to promote such collaboration. The universities, in seeking such funding, have themselves moved towards research which is applicable to industry, and away from improving fundamental understanding. In pursuing the former the importance of the latter must not however be diminished; the UK needs to ensure that a deep rooted fundamental understanding of supporting science continues to be available from universities, its only source.

  3.  The protection of intellectual property rights is a major factor for British Steel in deciding whether R&D is done collaboratively or in house—and, for collaborative research, it also influences the choice of partner.

  4.  In British Steel's view the FORESIGHT Programme has been successful in establishing research priorities for UK plc, and in focusing university research in agreed directions, However, it does not appear to have had a significant impact on product development decisions by industry. At best, industry would expect that future focused themes, defined by the next FORESIGHT exercise, should reflect the anticipated trends in new products from industry.

  5.  Whilst the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has been reasonably effective in fostering technology transfer, much of this is thought to be due to industry itself reaching in to take advantage of funding for collaborative work; this should therefore continue.

18 March 1998