Our Scottish Future is to set out fresh ideas on how to strengthen local government and local communities in Scotland – and we are calling for evidence to support our recommendations.
Continue readingScotland Rewired Project Announced
Gary’s Isle
In Scotland, we’re still stuck behind our No and Yes labels. But is the lesson from the Lineker furore that there might just be a shared future for progressive allies?
Continue readingNew FM Offers Chance for “Reset”
The new First Minister and the Prime Minister can press the ‘reset’ button and seek to deliver more together on jobs, health and climate change in Scotland, a paper by Our Scottish Future argues today.
Continue readingSturgeon’s Resignation Gives Scotland a Chance to End the Political Poison
A queue of people see opportunities in Nicola Sturgeon’s departure. The real opportunity however comes not from her departure but its underlying cause. Scottish politics, locked in the endless Groundhog Day of Yes or No, may be ready to move on.
Continue readingScotland “Has All The Ingredients But Lacks A Recipe” For Growth: Report
Study launched ahead of major economy conference hosted by Gordon Brown next week
Scotland has all the ingredients needed to become one of the great European engines of innovation – but it needs governments to come up with “a recipe for action,” a new report published today by Our Scottish Future concludes.
The report – “Engine of the North: Making Scotland a European Innovation Leader” – finds that Scotland has all the building blocks to once again become one of the most innovative nations in Europe.
But the paper argues the while Scotland has all the ingredients required for innovation, “it lacks a recipe.”
In a call to help ‘left behind’ parts of Scotland, it says that boosting innovation in the poorest performing areas of Scotland to the same level as our best could add £4billion to the Scottish economy overnight.
Boosting innovation in the poorest performing areas of Scotland to the same level as our best could add £4billion to the Scottish economy overnight.
The report comes ahead of a conference on the Glasgow economy next Friday, February 10th.
Speakers including Gordon Brown, CBI director-general Tony Danker and Centre for Cities founder Lord Sainsbury will set out ideas on how to boost growth in Scotland’s largest city region.
Scotland has enviable resources to produce an highly innovative economy, including a strong University sector, more STEM graduates per head of population than anywhere else in the UK, and high levels of state R+D funding, today’s report says.
However, despite this, it finds that our outputs are disappointing: Scotland has the third lowest GDP growth in the UK behind Northern Ireland and the North East of England, fewer new businesses being created each year per head of population than every region in England expect the North East, and has only 1.5 high growth firms per 10,000 head of population– half the number in London.
Among its recommendations, it argues that Scotland should connect up more closely with the rest of the UK to leverage the financial muscle of London and the “golden triangle” of London, Oxford and Cambridge.
The paper is written by engineers Chris Bond and Will Sutton, who have spent a lifetime working on innovation in Scotland’s offshore industries, and OSF research director Jamie Gollings.
They conclude: “Scotland has one of the strongest sets of innovation enablers in the UK. Scotland would be expected to be a real leader in driving innovation in the UK. What’s going wrong? The ingredients are there, but the meal is disappointing. The answer is the lack of a good recipe.”
The report points to Denmark – where government has drawn up a focussed R+D funding plan, and created innovation networks – as an exemplar.
“Scotland can be that country too. But to get there, it needs a state which is specific about what it wants to achieve, and unafraid to be bold,” the report says.
The report sets out a series of ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ recommendations which, if implemented, would drive innovation into every part of Scottish life.
‘Top-down’, it says government must focus its funding on a smaller group of high growth sectors, connect up better with UK bodies, and devolve power down to city and regional bodies.
‘Bottom-up’, it urges Ministers to say every town and region in the country should have new Innovation Forums to bring innovators, academics and local businesses together to come up with ideas to drive up productivity.
In Scotland, we’ve got no shortage of intellect or creativity, and no lack of opportunities and problems to apply this to. By making clear choices, directing the state’s help effectively, and creating the forums for these meetings to take place, Scotland can live up to its potential as an innovation nation once more.
The report shows that productivity is highly uneven – Edinburgh is one of the most productive areas in the UK, while southern Scotland lags way behind.
The report therefore backs a network of specialist Innovation Forums to support rural areas and small firms to find incremental gains in their way of working. To drive “bottom up” innovation, it says these should be run locally and not centralised in Edinburgh.
At a national level, it says the Scottish Government is “lacking a plan that dares to make choices.”
It urges Ministers to “take bets on a small subset of industries and then give them the backing they need.” It identifies those sectors as renewables, the energy sector, life sciences, business services, and food and drink and says the Scottish National Investment Bank should be more focussed in its support for these sectors.
The report also supports of the creation of Innovation Modules in every university degree – so students can learn how to identify problems and turn ideas into profitable concerns. Fostering a new culture of entrepreneurialism in Scotland is vital, it says.
It concludes: “In Scotland, we’ve got no shortage of intellect or creativity, and no lack of opportunities and problems to apply this to. By making clear choices, directing the state’s help effectively, and creating the forums for these meetings to take place, Scotland can live up to its potential as an innovation nation once more.”
To sign up to attend next week’s Glasgow economy conference, register here.
A Plan to Change Britain
Our Scottish Future Chair Professor Jim Gallagher delivered a key note lecture last week on the proposals by the Commission on the Future of the UK, published by Gordon Brown in December.
The plans drew on extensive research by Our Scottish Future as part of our efforts to build a new and positive plan for a changed UK.
The full text of the lecture, “Where now for the British constitution? Evaluating Labour’s constitutional proposals” can be read here.
It was given at St Andrew’s University.
Health Gap Leading to NHS Crisis
The poorest people in Scotland are 72% more likely to end up in hospital emergency beds than the richest, according to a major new study today which reveals the impact of Scotland’s health inequalities on the NHS.
Continue readingScotland Needs to Find a Better Way Than The SNP’s Brexit-Style Referendum
As the Scottish Parliament debates Indyref2, Prof Jim Gallagher says Scotland needs to find a better, more consensus-driven, way forward
Continue readingScottish and English Spending Compared
We looked at the relative levels of public expenditure in Scotland compared to England and how they have changed in recent years.
Continue readingThe Future of the UK a Game Changer for Scottish Politics
Labour’s Commission on the Future of the UK could be a game changer for Scottish politics. Instead of a zero sum, yes/no constitutional argument, an alternative choice of better shared government in a radically changed Britain.
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