I have been in Scotland for seven years. I came from Dublin, where I spent the previous 10 years as president of Dublin City University. Although it is always dangerous to make comparisons between countries, I made some observations when I arrived in Scotland. I was used to the system in Ireland, in which there was a high level of integration between universities and the key economic levers in industry and in Government agencies. When I came to Scotland, I found that universities were expected to be service providers for initiatives that came from elsewhere, whereas in Ireland I had been used to partnership arrangements.
I mention that because Ireland’s experience during the years in which I was there makes for quite an interesting comparison with Scotland. At that time, there was a focus on two aspects: start-ups with high knowledge value, particularly in the area of technology, and high-value foreign direct investment. Ireland’s specific emphasis on creating an innovation economy by nurturing an innovation ecosystem allowed it to step out of the recession that it slipped into—by which it was especially badly affected—very early. It now has a vibrant exporting economy that is focused largely on high-value, knowledge-intensive, innovation-driven initiatives, which are usually partnerships between industry and universities.
Scotland still has some way to go in that regard, as we are not quite at the point that I felt that Ireland had reached when I left, but we are going in the right direction. The innovation centres that have been created by the Government agencies in Scotland are definitely a move in the right direction, although we need a higher level of investment in activities of that kind than there has been so far.
The key driver of success will be the creation of a much higher level of research and development in industry. Scottish academic research is good, and it compares well with such activity anywhere in the world, whereas industry R and D does not. The industries of the future will not involve call centres or fairly low-level manufacturing; they will be knowledge-intensive, innovation-driven industries. For that development to take place, we need much better links between universities and industry to ensure that industry moves up the value chain to a greater extent than has been the case so far. Obviously, there needs to be a huge focus on skills.
We know all of that, and we are moving in the right direction, but we need a faster pace and—I suspect—more money. The United Kingdom’s industrial strategy may help a little bit in that regard, but we need to do a number of things in Scotland specifically. We are going in the right direction, but we have a way to go.