Innovation impacted by access to talent

The report, The International Innovation Barometer 2020​​,​ detailed the responses of a survey of 300 senior R&D professionals from 12 countries around the world, including the UK.

The availability of talent was the most frequently cited influence (50%) on where businesses established innovation programmes, firmly placing people as the ones driving the success of R&D through their ideas.

Access to talent ​

Kristina Sumichrastova, managing director at Ayming’s Czech Republic and Slovakia branch, said: “Access to talent has the single biggest impact on R&D. The more talent you have, the more money you can put into it. You can’t budget for R&D activity if you can’t find and hire the right people.​

“It is very difficult to find, attract and retain talent. They are crucial to the success of a project. It can be expensive to keep these people, but they are resourceful and the return on investment potential is big.”​

Brexit seemed to be preying on the minds of senior R&D professionals in the UK, highlighted by less than half of respondents (48%) expecting budget increases in the next three years.

Impairing collaboration projects ​

The greatest victim of Brexit, though, would be the impairment of collaborative projects between the UK and members of the EU, warned Ayming.

To mitigate the risk, Mark Smith, partner - innovation incentives at Ayming UK, called for more investment in R&D from the UK Government. “The worst thing in the world in times like this is to rein in investment,” ​he added. “It’s detrimental to longer-term success.” ​

While 68% of British businesses said they relied on internal R&D resources, only 48% said they collaborated with other organisations.

Meanwhile, a new training centre to tackle the shortage of skilled engineers​​ in the food and drink industry has been officially opened by Sheffield Hallam University.

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