Research and development (R&D) investment is central to innovation, economic growth and the UK’s knowledge economy holding its own in the face of global competition.

The government-backed Technology Strategy Board (TSB) exists to support and invest in the development of new IT and advise the government on policy.

Iain Gray, former managing director of Airbus UK, was appointed chief executive of the TSB at the beginning of last month.

In an exclusive interview, Gray talked to Computing about his new job and the government’s role in fostering innovation.

What are the big challenges for the board?

It’s a bit of a cliché, but in the past the UK has had a reputation for being good at the front-end science agenda but not so good at the commercial pull-through and the exploitation. I don’t necessarily agree with that. There are some strong examples, but we don’t tend to sell the stories very well.
The key challenge will be getting UK businesses to want to invest in R&D, using the bargaining power of government support ­ whether that be projects such as our knowledge transfer partnerships and graduate schemes or multimillion-pound collaborative programmes.
The first task is to get enterprises to understand the value of what we can offer. If, in five years’ time, people say: “It was a good idea and it received political support, but what did the TSB actually do?” then we will have failed.

Last month the board announced a collaborative research and development fund worth £100m. What is the funding model for the TSB?

We have an overall budget of about £200m a year. Following Lord Sainsbury’s review of science and technology (published in October), there has been a reinforcement of our role, backed up by statements in the Whitehall budgeting process, that doubles the funds available to us.
We’ve also been given a strong position in terms of co-ordination across the regions. About £180m of Regional Development Agency money and £120m from research councils will be aligned with TSB projects. So there’s a definite increase in the funds available to us.

Stephen Timms, minister of state for competitiveness, recently held an industry summit to discuss the future of UK next-generation broadband. What can be done to encourage the upgrade of the network infrastructure?

There is the whole issue of government procurement and how we can use social debates as a means of encouraging R&D.
Lord Sainsbury’s report talks about small business innovation research schemes, but if you look at what the government purchases every year, that dwarfs the expenditure of specific technology programmes.
If a company sees a potential customer at the end, that motivates them to invest, so we can use the government’s strength to encourage innovation. It is a mechanism we need to explore, and broadband is one of the areas that could benefit from it.

Aside from collaborative R&D, what other approaches is the TSB taking to encourage innovation?

We’re setting up innovation platforms, where a societal issue is presented as a challenge to businesses. We are asking firms what they see as a potential solution, and how can we use that framework to move innovation forward.
We have two running at the moment: one for an intelligent transport system and another for network security.
Last month we launched a platform called “Assisted Living”, which recognises that the UK has an ageing population and asks how we can use this fact to create business benefits and to develop innovative solutions.

What is the best approach for discovering and investing in future technologies?
Until July the TSB was part of a government department. But the fact that it has now been
set up as an arms-length body gives us more flexibility and allows us the opportunity to take more risks.
The key thing is getting out there to understand where the ideas are. There are a lot of people who know a lot more than we do, and our task is to find ways of establishing two-way communication ­ by talking to venture capitalists, to universities, to science and industry councils. These people know what the emerging technologies of tomorrow will be, and they can see what help is needed.
It is a myth to think that there is a magic solution that starts at the top and cascades down. What the TSB is about is establishing the structures that will allow us to relate to these different stakeholder communities.