Back in business

Aurora Antemir, Royal Society of Chemistry

Our planet is expected to be home to some nine billion people by 2050, and the pressure on resources is already evident. In this situation, chemistry is central to making life liveable. And it will also have a key part to play in making business and the associated economic growth attainable. In 2011, for example, chemicals and pharmaceuticals accounted for 12.3% of manufacturing value added, or 1.4% of gross value added to the economy in the United Kingdom.

Recognising this, we have put together a new five-year strategy that places a focus on industry and the people working in it as one of our top priorities. It is strongly aligned with our organisational strategy, and we will focus on three main areas: building knowledge, skills and the community across the chemical science industry.

Through increased investment into industry-focused programmes, we want to:

• facilitate innovation and growth in small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK by increasing access to information, expertise and talent;
• secure a well-trained workforce by supporting professional development of individuals practising chemical science in industry in the UK; and
• enable science and knowledge sharing to encourage collaborations that yield economic and social benefits, in the UK and internationally.

The strategy was enthusiastically backed by our Council in April this year and forms one of the key priorities for our new president, Professor Dominic Tildesley. 

Innovation and growth in SMEs

Within the chemical sciences industry (including pharmaceuticals) in the UK, 95.6% of companies are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). They employ 42% of the workforce and account for 23% of the value added to the UK economy.

Compared with large, multinational corporations, small companies need support in specific areas. These range from access to funding, science or commercial expertise to recruiting the right people and understanding chemical regulations. Through our work, we would like to help SMEs overcome these challenges by offering them a range of support.

Two ways in which we already support SMEs and innovation are EnterprisePlus, our one-stop-shop service for small, R&D-intensive companies in the chemical sciences, and the Emerging Technologies Competition. The EnterprisePlus member companies span a wide range of sectors from speciality chemicals, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, synthetic materials and agricultural chemicals through to chemical testing and devices.

Last month, just over one year after its launch, EnterprisePlus welcomed J1 Technologies as the 100th small company member.

We have also just closed the second year of our Emerging Technologies competition. Two of our SME winners were Teesside-based Catalytic Technologies Ltd and Econic Technologies Ltd from London. Following the competition they have started working with their mentors Procter & Gamble and Croda to move their technologies forward to commercial stages. In addition to the one-to-one mentoring, the winners also received a cash prize of up to £10,000 to invest into further developing the technology.

Dr Richard Ward, technical manager at Catalytic Technologies said that he and his colleagues “look forward to working with our mentors to deliver growth and commercial success for our technology.”

As part of our five-year strategy, we aim to build on both of these programmes and to continue to increase our investment in small company support.

A well-trained workforce

Science and innovation are key drivers of economic growth. In order to maximise this potential, it is important to put in place a continuous supply of highly skilled chemical scientists at all stages of the talent pipeline. As part of our new strategy, we will focus on three areas that will enable companies to secure a well-trained workforce.

Retaining skills and talent in the chemical science industry is key to scientific and economic advancement. It is therefore vital that chemical scientists and technical staff receive recognition and have the ability to continuously develop their specialist skills. We will therefore develop our professional development programme for those pursuing careers in industry. This will complement our existing well-established industrial accreditation package which provides routes to professional recognition such as Chartered Chemist (CChem) and Registered Scientist (RSci) via company training schemes. We will also re-invigorate our Industry Prizes and Awards portfolio to recognise and reward outstanding achievements for innovation, entrepreneurship, outreach and partnerships with academia.

Providing a variety of routes to a career in industry is crucial to ensuring a diverse and innovative workforce. At the same time, there is a need to bring together employers and training providers to establish standards for vocational training, which has declined in the recent decades. We will concentrate on putting in place integrated vocational training across chemical sciences industries.

Chemical scientists leaving formal education have to translate their knowledge and understanding into effective working practices.There is a need to support the transition from education to scientific enterprise to maximise productivity, which is why will look at providing the necessary support for a smooth transition into the workplace. This involves facilitating the transition from education to career by offering opportunities for high-quality work experience, and providing targeted, work-related learning and training to up-skill the existing workforce.

This year we are piloting a new grant scheme, which allows undergraduate students to gain industrial experience in small companies. So far we have awarded ten fully funded places in small companies. The one-year placements will start in September 2014.

Science and knowledge sharing

Innovation is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. In the past, organisations have been able to survive on very limited amounts of innovation and small incremental improvements in their product lines, but recent trends in globalisation meant that development of innovative products and ideas became key to differentiating themselves from the crowd. 

More widely, innovation is important to the advancement of society around the world. New and innovative products can increase the standard of living and provide people with opportunities to improve their lives. Breakthroughs in medicine and technology have significantly improved living standards around the world. And it’s the sharing of knowledge and information that can create new knowledge and insights, which can lead to new applications.

We are working to facilitate access to knowledge across industry and academia, encouraging the exchange of ideas and supporting the transition of innovative ideas to the market. We have plans for some exciting new developments, so keep an eye out for future announcements.