Warwick Manufacturing Group has been hailed as a role model for the future of scientific research.
Business Secretary Vince Cable singled the University of Warwick complex out as he outlined plans to seek ‘more for less’ by rationing research funding.
It comes as fears mount that the Government’s £6 billion a year contribution could be cut back by up to 25 per cent, although Mr Cable said he could not prejudge the outcome of the wider spending review, the outcome of which is due to be announced this autumn.
Speaking at Queen Mary University of London, he praised WMG – founded and headed by Post Business columnist Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya – as “outstanding”.
He said: “I recently went to Professor Bhattacharya’s outstanding centre at Warwick and the whole point about his centre is innovation depends on lateral thinking between apparently different disciplines.”
And he singled out Tata’s operations in the West Midlands as a company which had been attracted to invest here because the UK was home to some of the leading universities in the world and had such a strong research base.
Lord Bhattacharyya was instrumental in bringing Tata – parent company of Jaguar Land Rover – to the region.
Mr Cable’s comments came as he laid out a way forward for science in the context of funding cuts.
