This Monday we released a report on how we need to establish a new order of chivalry to encourage invention and raise the status of being an innovator.
From 2015 to 2020, fewer than one in ten appointments to the Order of the British Empire were made for services to “innovation”, “technology”, “entrepreneurship”, “engineering”, “science”, “medicine”, “manufacturing”, or broader related terms such as “industry” and “business”.
To remedy this Anton Howes and Ned Donovan called for a new Elizabethan Order to be established, which would closely resemble the existing Order of the British Empire in structure, and would honour 273 individuals each year for their contributions to innovation.
Anton wrote more about the idea in CapX.
Scientists and innovators are remarkably under-recognised considering how much of our daily life, and the material progress we make each year, depends upon them. From increasing sustainability, reducing waste, and finding new treatments for disease, to making food taste better, industries more efficient, and services run smoother, we owe a lot to the people often quietly experimenting away in laboratories and workshops, behind computer screens or in kitchens or makerspaces, or even just tinkering with machines and circuit boards in the garage or garden shed. Unlike the sportspeople, actors, musicians, authors, and politicians to whom we give so many extra accolades, there is rarely any fame or glory to be had. And while a few entrepreneurs might get rich off their innovations, the great majority of them don’t.
Which is why we need a new order of chivalry: one specifically aimed at honouring people for their inventions, scientific discoveries, and technological advancements, to function in parallel with the Order of the British Empire recognising public service and charity.
And also his history newsletter, which explores the causes of Britain’s success in accelerating innovation and invention through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Anton said that inventors in Britain were very good at raising the social status of becoming an inventor. The idea for giving honours to innovators is not without precedent, and the newsletter talks about the The Royal Geulphic Order, which existed for a while in the UK before Queen Victoria.
This idea has captured the imaginations of lots of people. Martin Vander Weyer praised the idea in the Spectator this week;
My sympathy is also caught by a plea from the Entrepreneurs Network think-tank for a new ‘Elizabethan Order’ of chivalry that would salute another shunned category: the innovators, especially in technology, who received ‘fewer than one in ten’ honours awarded over the past five years and were ever scarcer in the recent birthday roll-call, a rare exception being a CBE for Julie Deane, founder of the stylish but relatively low-tech Cambridge Satchel Company.
The idea was also covered in Startups Magazine and the Telegraph
Many voiced their support on Twitter, including Lord Bethell, the minister for innovation in the Department of Health and Social Care.
And Onward’s Ted Christie-Miller
And Emergent Venture’s Matt Clancy
There were some who saw this idea and said they wanted something similar in their own countries too.
The paper was endorsed by Matt Clifford MBE, co-founder and Chief Executive of Entrepreneur First, an entrepreneurship programme that helps founders build teams and businesses around their ideas and provides seed investment, who said:
“We know that everyone benefits when the most talented members of society apply their abilities to innovation. Raising the status and prestige of innovators is one of the most important ways to encourage invention, so I strongly endorse the idea of a new chivalric order. It could have a disproportionately positive impact relative to its cost."
Jess Butcher MBE, serial technology entrepreneur, angel investor, and Government advisor, added:
“The ‘Elizabethan Order' is a fantastic initiative to highlight and reward the very specific contributions made by those individuals inventing the future. There is so much innovation of global importance coming out of the UK, and it is imperative to better recognise the contributions made - not only to celebrate their success, but to encourage future pioneers.”
John Penrose, MP for Weston, Worle, and The Villages, the Prime Minister’s Anti-Corruption Champion, and Chair of Conservative Policy Forum, also endorsed the idea, saying:
“Britain has always been better at recognising the achievements of people who rise to the top of established professions and industries, rather than the innovators who create new ones. But, ultimately, the power of ideas is what drives the technologies that create new jobs and economic growth, and that fuel our society and culture too. This is a creative and interesting idea to redress that balance.”
Emma Jones CBE, founder of Enterprise Nation, said
“In view of the contribution they make to the economy and society, it would be wonderful to see innovators and entrepreneurs recognised in the way outlined in this proposal of The Elizabethan Order. Innovators set out to solve problems and stretch the art of what is possible and entrepreneurs do the same. Their efforts deliver results in the form of civil advancement, trade opportunities, and global partnerships. They do not do this work to be honoured but to honour them in this way would represent the ultimate recognition of their passion and toil”