Willetts casts doubts over nanotechnology centres

In the first public meeting of the House of Commons science and technology committee, Willetts said the UK has too many centres that are ‘sub-critical in size’ and resources are fractionalised by region.

‘We have been getting a strong message that especially when times are tight that people want fewer, stronger centres,’ he said.

Willetts added that it will be up to the government’s Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to look at the UK’s regional nanotechnology centres and ‘take some quite tough decisions’’ about where resources should be re-directed and concentrated.

Centralised focus

The more centralised focus falls into line with the coalition government’s proposal for abolishing England’s nine regional development agencies (RDAs) for new local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) which would bring together local councils and businesses.

Both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have been eager to scrap RDAs which were established by the Labour government soon after it came into power.

Willetts and others in the coalition government argue the work of the RDAs are often redundant and too expensive.