The Windsor Framework agreement is good news for entrepreneurs and innovation. While Boris Johnson will find it hard to vote for Sunak’s deal, he’s feeling increasingly isolated. Even Steve Baker MP – the self-styled “hard man of Brexit” – is exhausted.

Britain’s innovators were in a buoyant mood for the Campaign for Science and Engineering’s (CaSE) annual lecture. Despite news that the Treasury was taking back £1.6bn promised for science, this was overshadowed by the prospect that the UK would soon be back in the €95.5bn (over six years to 2027) Horizon Europe research programme.

The CaSE lecture was to launch a thorough report on Public Attitudes to R&D. Entrepreneurs should take heed – whether directly and indirectly, the whole ecosystem relies on taxpayer funded schemes to support them. While it would be naive to think that all policy can – or even should – be subject to the will of the people (that’s why we live in a representative rather than direct democracy), if we want science funding to continue, public consent and engagement is important.

Over half, 52%, of people either haven’t heard of the acronym “R&D” or have but don’t know what it means. The Government’s “Science Superpower” tagline hasn’t cut through, people seem to respond better to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s idea of R&D delivering “stronger growth, better jobs and bold new discoveries”.

Just over 60% of people either agree that “R&D doesn’t benefit people like them” or feel neutral or unsure about R&D’s impacts. Surprisingly – to me at least – younger age groups are less likely to feel R&D benefits them, or think it can create local jobs in their area, and are more likely to say that we cannot afford to invest in R&D at the moment.

But perhaps there is hope for the next generation. In a report packed with a smorgasbord of interesting findings, young people are engaging more than their elders with R&D activities – whether that’s reading research, discussing research, or watching research documentaries.

This TV example is particularly interesting in light of recent evidence on the effects of TV content on entrepreneurship following German unification (I’m not joking). Western TV was available since the 1960s in some East German regions and conveyed images and attitudes conducive to entrepreneurship. It shows that TV content affects individuals’ decisions to start businesses and shapes attitudes and value orientations conducive to entrepreneurship. This ‘entrepreneurial mindset’ is passed on across generations with long-lasting cultural effects.

In other words: you can’t be what you can’t see.

(My colleague, Dr Anton Howes, will be particularly interested in the fact that just 3.29% of people have visited a science festival or science fair in the last year, given his ongoing dream of putting on a new Great Exhibition.)

Funding to Flourish
I didn’t lead today on our All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) report, as the odds are that we’ve already emailed you about it at some point in recent weeks. But you can finally read Funding to Flourish: The Case for Tax Relief on Early Stage Investment.

It should be pointed out that the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) already have cross-party support. In the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor made all the right noises, and as a successful serial entrepreneur he understands the ecosystem. Equally, Labour’s Startup Review showed how seriously they take these vital tax breaks. But crucially, legislation is needed for them to continue, which is why we put out a letter that already has over 300 signatories from entrepreneurs (the first 200 of which you can find here). It’s not too late to sign the letter here, and please feel free to share far and wide.

While kindly supported by the Venture Capital Trust Association (VCTA), this project is very much an independent and entrepreneur-led report. It does three things: it makes a clear and coherent economic case for why these tax breaks exist; it gives voice to entrepreneurs who tend to be too busy to share their views with government; and it makes the case for what needs changing, specifically we want the Government to provide clarity about the future of EIS and VCTs, expand the generosity of SEIS, amend the financial health rules for startups, and give SAFE notes equal tax treatment.

As Aria Babu concludes in the must-read article on her report: “There are plenty of deep, complex reforms we could introduce to make the British economy more dynamic. From planning reform to sharper procurement, better childcare and smarter science funding. All of those however, take time and care to put into place. Rolling over a few tax breaks really is the kind of low-hanging fruit governments crave: as the Budget approaches, it would be a shame if the Chancellor passed it up.”