This week the government released the Science and Technology Framework, or in current lingo its “plan to cement the UK’s place as a science and technology superpower by 2030.” It covers a lot of ground, but I want to focus on one announcement which we’ve been working on.

As part of the smorgasbord of plans, Rishi announced the government will be “testing different models of funding science, to support a range of innovative institutional models, such as Focused Research Organisations (known as FROs), working with industry and philanthropic partners to open up new funding for UK research. For example, this could include working with a range of partners to increase investment in the world leading UK Biobank, to support the continued revolution in genetic science.”

We’re particularly heartened by this, as we helped popularise the concept of FROs in A New Model Science – a report we produced last year with Convergent Research and the Tony Blair Institute. As our Adviser and former Research Director tweeted in a useful thread: “FROs are a new way of doing science. In effect, they apply the startup model to scientific research.” And as I wrote last year:

“FROs are designed to fill a gap in the market, solving problems too big for a single academic lab to take on, too complex for a loose, multi-lab collaboration to solve, and not directly profitable enough for a venture-backed startup or industrial R&D project to fund.

Though nonprofits, FROs are entrepreneurial, being run by full-time technical founders who oversee 10-30 employees. They pursue specific, quantifiable technical milestones for a finite-duration (5-7 years). And as they near completion, they translate what they have built into longer-lived nonprofits or venture-backed startup spinouts.

Because these are bigger undertakings than most academic labs handle, and are focused on a very tangible, focused goal, entrepreneurs are as critical a part of FRO founding teams as scientists. As Tom Chivers put it in his first-rate article on our report: ‘If it’s not profitable, the private sector won’t fund it; if it’s too big and complicated, universities can’t do it.’

Three FROs have been launched so far, all in the United States. E11 Bio is building the key tools needed to map the connections between neurons in a mammalian brain. If successful, it could make new treatments for brain disorders possible. While Boston-based Cultivarium is building an end-to-end toolkit for cultivating currently unculturable microbes. This will accelerate the study and engineering of microorganisms for purposes such as medicine and carbon removal, which will be vital if the world is to keep global temperatures stable.”

FROs aren’t the answer to everything. But as Stian Westlake – who backed our report alongside pioneering geneticist George Church – argued in the Guardian this week, the government should run more experiments – including in funding.

Y–EIS!
Following the long-term efforts of many, including Christiana Stewart-Lockhart at the EISA, Will Fraser-Allen and Justine Dugan at the VCTA, Chris Elphick at the BVCA and many more, including all of you who backed our campaign and the APPG for Entrepreneurship’s report, the Chancellor has confirmed that it is the government’s firm intention to extend the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trusts beyond the current sunset on 6 April 2025.

Unlocking Investment
We are partnering with the CBI to investigate the problem of why the UK sees comparatively little institutional investment (from pension funds and insurers) flow into companies through equity, and science and technology startups in particular.

This is far from an unacknowledged issue, but most research to date has focused on regulatory issues which are barriers to more investment going to these sorts of businesses. We’re especially interested to better understand other reasons for the (lack of) supply of capital – for instance the idea that there is a cultural conservatism against equity investment.

To help inform our research, we want to speak to experts and people working in the industry for their views and opinions. Interviews can be on or off the record, and will only take 30 minutes, conducted virtually. The final output of the research will be a short policy paper which we and the CBI will use to highlight the issue and influence policymakers accordingly.

Get in touch with Eamonn Ives if you want to get involved. And we would be grateful if you could share with others in your network.

We Need to Talk About
Kevin Hollinrake, the Small Business Minister, will be joining EX23 – a Small Business Roundtable event we’re supporting with Enterprise Nation, MSDUK and the FSB. There are also lots of distinguished speakers coming over from the US too. Register for free here. I hope to see you there!