Abstract

Academic research in the United Kingdom is outstanding, of worldwide renown, second behind Germany’s in terms of the budget allotted under the EU’s seventh Framework Program on Research and Development. In 2011, funds for R&D from private sources amounted to 17,4 billion pounds in Great Britain. Although British academia is not traditionally very oriented toward applied research, public authorities have exerted efforts for over a decade in favor of developing relations between universities and firms. The objective is to facilitate the transfer of key technology from the laboratory toward the marketplace. Thanks to these efforts and the recent tax credit for research, the results are now becoming visible.