Definitions of R & D : report with evidence.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Science and Technology Committee.
Date:
1990
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Definitions of R & D : report with evidence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    75/148 (page 73)
    Tes) 7 December 1989] {Lord Kearton contd.] (Dr Tidd) The quarterly industrial trends tend to go to targeted personnel, they tend to be in accounts because they have the figures. We have a second survey which was launched in September which deals specifically with innovation trends. We have two measures, if you like, the Quarterly Industrial Trends Survey which is widely reported and used, and this new survey which deals with innovation; it asks fora breakdown on the different types of spend products. 175. Who answers that question? (Dr Tidd) We know that because we control that directly. They are primarily the research and technical directors for the innovation survey because it requires a detailed breakdown of spending on both inputs and outputs on innovation. Because the Quarterly Industrial Trends ask for a whole list of questions relating to stock turnover, expected sales, they tend to go to a higher person in the company who has a broader picture of the company. 176. In view of what you are trying to find out should you not ask the managing director essentially to take responsibility for the information even if he gets different departments to provide it? Is it not the philosophy behind the whole spectrum or continuum from the first idea to the finished product or service which really matters? (Dr Acres) Yes. I think ideally you would but as you are probably well aware he would probably delegate the actual preparation of the document to someone like myself. 177. True, but taking Dr Tidd’s point about the philosophy behind the whole R&D innovation process surely that goes squarely to the chief executive’s desk? (Dr Tidd) 1 think ideally that would be the case, but because of our experience of response rates, our first point of contact with CBI member companies is the chief executive. Again you are quite nght, Dr Acres, we do many, many different surveys during the year on different subjects and inevitably the reply comes from somewhere else in the organisation. These things are delegated, but worse still when they are delegated we lose information from the organisation. Now we tend to target the person who will have most of the information, if not all of the information, to hand. I think DTI suffers, in some respects, in that to my knowledge they do not monitor well enough where the questionnaire goes, is it accounts, or research and technical directors who get the questionnaires? This may be the reason for discrepancies in, for example, contracting out R&D. 178. Has it ever been a subject at the CBI annual - conference? (Dr Tidd) 1 do not think so, although having said that, in the next year, the CBI Jubilee Year (the 25 year Silver Jubilee) we have a series of nine themes one per month, but on-going. One of those themes will be investment in innovation. 179. It is only just coming up? (Dr Tidd) Yes, although we had a working group several years ago looking specifically at finance and innovation. We tend to explore things as we go along. We have limited resources. The major item this current year was infrastructure investment and I would see innovation as part of the infrastructure. D [Continued The priority was training skills and transport infrastructure. 180. Does it go up before the CBI Council? (Dr Tidd) \t does; it went to the last council. The nine themes were approved. 181. Despite the fact that the CBI has been in existence since 1962 or 1963, the concentration on the whole innovatory process—starting with R&D—has only just begun to surface; fair comment? (Dr Tidd) I think it is fair comment. When I joined the CBI earlier in the year one of my jobs was an innovation trend survey. It has a long history. It is a case study of how to manage innovation. In the late 1970s the idea started and it is only now this year it has been launched. These things take time. Lord Clitheroe 182. Is the compilation of R&D statistics merely a chore for industrial companies? (Dr Acres) No. 183. Does it have managerial value and internal application? . (Dr Acres) You are probably interested to know that since it became a requirement via the SSAP13 to put R&D expenditure into annual reports in my experience the accountants have taken much more interest in what constitutes R&D. For example the definition of R&D and what benefit one is getting from that activity. There has always been some interest in that right up to the chief executive. As a result there is certainly in the companies I am aware of, and in our own, a much better appreciation of what R&D is than maybe there was previously except for the R&D director. As a result of having a bottom line figure, having a definition of R&D, separating it from technical support and being able to break it down either into Frascati categories or EIRMA categories, whichever you choose to break it down into, gives people a much better feel for what R&D is all about and how it relates to the short, medium and long term interests of the group. Hence in my experience it is not considered to be a chore. It is considered to be part of the management of the whole business entity. 184. Do you feel that really there is a common industry-specific guideline for R&D or is it an issue that all industry should be reporting the same way? Do these different definitions give you confusion or clarity? (Dr Tidd) I think for the last ten years at least the major companies in Europe and America and in Japan have contributed to various surveys. EIRMA, which is close to us in Europe, did a major review of how R&D is defined, how it is best defined in industry and how the amount spent on R&D within the various industrial sectors of Europe compares against the various parameters like turnover, profit and the rest of it and within various industries in those sectors. There is a considerable consensus among those companies that carry out the major R&D as to what the R&D is and how to use the categorisation of it as a benefit within the organisation.