8 Cambridge-MIT Institute
51. CMI is a 5-year alliance between the University
of Cambridge and MIT, announced in July 2000. It is 80% funded
by HM Treasury at a cost of £65 million. Its mission is to
enhance the competitiveness, productivity and entrepreneurship
of the UK economy:
- By improving the effectiveness
of knowledge exchange between university and industry, educating
leaders, creating new ideas, and developing programmes for change
in universities, industry and government
- Using an enduring partnership of Cambridge and
MIT, and an extended network of participants.
52. In the OST's memorandum to the Committee's annual
scrutiny Report 2002, it stated that the OST would be conducting
an independent evaluation of CMI. The Committee recommended that
this be published but the Government's response gave no undertaking
to do so.[63]
53. In a written answer to George Osborne MP, the
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt said,
"my Department commissioned the review to provide detailed
advice and guidance to Ministers on a confidential basis. It was
shared in confidence with the Board of the Cambridge MIT Institute
Ltd. which is a company limited by guarantee". She also stated
that "The DTI's contract with CMI requires CMI to give a
full account of its achievements against agreed/stated objectives.
DTI will commission an independent review of the CMI project on
its termination".[64]
54. In a further answer to Tim Yeo MP, Ms Hewitt
said that "I instigated an independent review of CMI in May
2001, and the CMI board accepted and acted upon all the recommendations.
The most recent independent audit, in February 2003, found CMI's
internal systems and controls and corporate governance practices
to be satisfactory and made no recommendations for further action".[65]
55. Investing in Innovation, the Government's
science strategy, states that while "CMI is now starting
to deliver tangible benefits to UK research and business …
The Government as major investor (with business co-finance) will
continue to require substantial dividends in the form of enterprise
education and research for the UK in return for continued backing
over the remaining three years of the funding period".[66]
56. We are pleased that CMI's performance has improved,
although it is not clear to us that the Government has evidence
of "substantial dividends". We understand that the NAO's
Report on CMI will be published in March 2004.
57. The Cambridge-MIT Institute is an interesting
initiative and appears to be bearing some fruit, but the £65
million expenditure must be put in context. For the same amount
of money, the Government could have provided the Biotechnology
and Biological Sciences Research Council with around 5% extra
funding over the same period. The investment is only slightly
less than the combined cost of the stem cell and sustainable energy
programmes in Spending Review 2002. For this reason, we reiterate
the importance of making the evaluation of CMI available to us,
in commercial confidence if necessary.
63 Seventh Report of the Science and Technology Committee,
The Office of Science and Technology: Scrutiny Report 2002,
HC 860, para 48; Third Special Report of the Science and Technology
Committee, The Office of Science and Technology: Scrutiny Report
2002: Government Response to the Committee's Seventh Report of
Session 2001-02, HC 293, p 9 Back
64
HC Deb, 3 June 2003, Col 321W Back
65
HC Deb, 5 June 2003, Col 531W Back
66
Department of Trade and Industry, Investing in Innovation:
A strategy for science, engineering and technology, July 2002,
para 5.31 Back
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