UK committee raises alarm over science business exodus

Failure to retain promising companies and attract global talent has thrown the UK’s science and technology sector into a crisis, a UK Parliament committee has warned.In a scathing report released Nov. 5, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee urges the government to reform investment and visa policies and reap the benefits of the UK’s R&D efforts before the economy “bleeds to death.”The UK has four of the top 10 global universities, according to the report, and a healthy scene of start-ups and university spinouts. But it faces a troubling pattern of companies moving overseas to scale up, it warns.Almost half of the UK’s science-based small and medium-size companies look elsewhere to grow because of better access to capital, tax incentives, and skilled employees, says Sharon Todd, the CEO of the global chemical industry organization SCI, which gave evidence to the committee. There is “huge potential” in the UK, Todd says, but “if the government is committed to driving economic growth in science, it must urgently create an environment where the businesses of today and tomorrow can flourish and grow."The US in particular lures businesses with opportunities to receive investment while the UK is caught in what the report calls a “doom loop” of shallow capital pools and risk-averse institutional investors.“Even during our inquiry, several significant companies . . . have relocated or expanded abroad,” says committee chair Robert Mair. In the summer, Maryland-based IonQ bought British quantum computing innovator Oxford Ionics, and transplantation tech company OrganOx, an Oxford