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Further reading □ OverviewContents1. Background and introduction2. Executive summary3. The case for the Programme4. Technical content and targets5. Cost and funding6. Management of the Programme7. Human resources8. Summary of RecommendationsAcknowledgements
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ACL ACD C&A INF CCD CISD Archives
Further reading

Overview
Contents
1. Background and introduction
2. Executive summary
3. The case for the Programme
4. Technical content and targets
5. Cost and funding
6. Management of the Programme
7. Human resources
8. Summary of Recommendations
Acknowledgements

2. Executive Summary

2.1 There should be a national programme for Advanced Information Technology (AIT). This will cost £350m over 5 years. Government should contribute two-thirds of the direct cost of this programme. Industry should provide the remainder, as well as the much larger sums needed to translate the results of the programme into marketable products.

2.2 The aim of the programme is to mobilise our technical strengths in IT. This is essential to improve our competitive position in world IT markets. Our present technical effort is fragmented and fails to exploit fully our current strengths.

2.3 The programme should be a collaborative effort between industry, the academic sector and other research organisations, in order to improve the harnessing of our technical strengths to industrial objectives; to get the best value from Government support; and to allow the widest possible involvement and exploitation.

2.4 Some £57m should go to support research and training in academic institutions. This should be 100 per cent Government funded. The rest of the programme would be carried out by industry. Where very wide dissemination of the results is required work should be funded 90 per cent by Government. Other work should receive 50 per cent funding. The overall ratio of Government funding for the programme in industry would be roughly 60 per cent.

2.5 A high level of Government support is essential. Without it collaboration is not possible, nor full dissemination of the results of the programme and their exploitation, particularly by the small business sector.

2.6 Technically it is a broadly based programme covering four key enabling technologies: Software Engineering, Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI), Man Machine Interfaces (MMI), and Intelligent Knowledge Based Systems (IKBS). The UK IT industry cannot compete in world markets unless we have a strong domestic capability in each of these technologies. Urgent action is needed to generate this capability. We have achievements and potential in each of the enabling technologies on which we can build.

2.7 A broadly based programme is needed but with specific technical targets and coverage of the important interactions and overlap between the enabling technologies. We have defined a programme to meet these needs.

2.8 The programme roughly doubles existing UK activity in the enabling technologies. It aims to improve the co-ordination or 'gearing' of our current effort and to raise the total level of activity. Achievement of both objectives is needed; they are interdependent.

2.9 The programme covers pre-competitive activities, i.e. basic research, design tools and a communications infrastructure to link researchers. It also includes capability demonstrators to test the emerging technology and assess its potential commercial application. In all of these areas collaboration is feasible and vital if we are to make the best use of limited technical resources. Collaboration is more difficult the closer one gets to the market. It will be for individual companies to translate the results of the programme into marketable product in a wholly competitive mode. This is fully compatible with collaboration at the pre-competitive stage.

2.10 The programme includes measures in the areas of education and training to provide the human resources to mount the technical programme particularly in IKBS, where the number of skilled practitioners is very low, but also in software and MMI.

2.11 The programme must be run as a UK effort. Foreign multinationals should participate only where they can contribute a particular asset vital to the programme; where the results of their involvement will be available to the benefit of UK industry as a whole; and where it is guaranteed that valuable technical information will not leak from the UK.

2.12 Industrial Property Rights should be handled in order to encourage collaborative participation and full exploitation by UK industry.

2.13 The programme will have to be firmly driven to achieve effective implementation. We propose that a new Directorate be set up within DOI charged with implementing the programme. It must be dedicated to this task, and have the necessary powers and resources to act speedily and flexibly. In charge should be a Director hand picked for the job. He should be accountable for his broad strategy and overall operations to a modified form of the EARB, and through existing DOI control machinery. But he must have enough autonomy to get on and run the programme and be supported by a small but carefully selected team.

2.14 SERC and MOD should also be directly involved in the management and control of the programme strategy. They should provide some of the Government funding.

2.15 Exploitation of the programme can start at an early stage. This should be actively encouraged by the Directorate. Exploitation can occur throughout the duration of the programme and beyond. Exploitation should in no sense be restricted to organisations which have participated in the programme.

2.16 Though broadly based, the programme does not cover all possible areas of IT in which collaboration is necessary. Other areas need to be considered as part of an on-going review of our technological capability in IT. Arrangements must be made for this. We would expect the Directorate to be closely involved in this.

2.17 We have drawn up a detailed and costed programme lasting five years. Collaborative activities will be required beyond this period, particularly in IKBS, for the full benefits to be yielded.

2.18 The US, Japan and countries in Europe are now all mounting programmes comparable to the one we propose for the UK. These rival programmes present a serious challenge to the UK, which we must face. The EEC ESPRIT programme is complementary to the programme we propose.

2.19 Implementation of the programme above is not sufficient to secure a competitive position for the UK IT industry. Action is needed on other fronts too. There must be continuing support from Government for product development; effective use of public sector procurement; and an expanded programme to promote the application of IT, particularly in the service sector, to provide follow-up to IT 82.

2.20 Also vital is a substantial programme to generate more human resources to develop IT products and to apply them in all areas of industry. The supply of skilled manpower in this respect is totally inadequate for current and future needs.

2.21 Unless there is action to implement the AIT programme and in these other related areas, the prospects of the UK competing successfully in the world IT market will be sharply reduced. The spread of advanced IT applications in the UK will also be sharply constrained. Both of these would be extremely damaging to employment prospects, to our industrial efficiency as a nation, and to our general economic position. Money put into the programme would be money well spent.

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