Anne Campbell, Labour MP for Cambridge, is campaigning today for US-style legislation that would plough significant funds into the UK's tech start-ups.
Campbell brought the legislation, modelled on the US' Small Business Innovation Development Act, before parliament as a private member's Bill yesterday.
The US law demands federal government spend 2.5 percent of its research and development budget on small and medium-sized businesses — a demand which sees around $6bn dished out to start-ups every year.
In a recent report setting out how a UK system should work, Campbell said: "Small firms often fail to become large firms and do not achieve their true potential... This is a wasted opportunity and one which we cannot ignore."
Rather than asking government for handouts, Campbell wants to see a system of soft start-ups, where Whitehall would identify a technological need and then tender for small firms to do the job.
The report identifies Cambridge Silicon Radio and Autonomy as two soft start-up successes but adds of the UK's tech market: "Over at least 25 years of trying, the UK has singularly failed to turn its entrepreneurial start-ups into companies of the scale of Cisco, Sun, Google or Amgen."
In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in
Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below
By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Membership FAQ
Fedora is the same way as well. The yum update system uses "presto" which shrinks the amount of data needed for download. It's a great system....
4 hours ago by apexwm on Can you believe it - 2765 kB will be freed?
Updated ID cards considered for 2012: [zdnet.co.uk] The government is considering introducing a new generation of ID... http://dlvr.it/KpBZ
4 hours ago on Twitter by cybfor Google, Viacom trade blows in YouTube copyright spat: [zdnet.co.uk] Google and the US media giant Viacom have issued... http://dlvr.it/Knht
6 hours ago on Twitter by cybfor
Be sure to include an audio option - eg. a beep tone - to intensify and reiterate the action. This will greatly benefit some consumers and give...
6 hours ago by CIMITL Data disposal is really important to get right. There are standards set by UK and US federal governments to ensure that data is kept secure. If...
6 hours ago by DataSecurityUK Online Fiber Optic Certification Join a talented group of professionals, who are dedicated to Fiber Optic Networking technology. The online course...
8 hours ago by chaycon1 on BT launches 40Mbps fibre-based broadband Online Fiber Optic Certification Join a talented group of professionals, who are dedicated to Fiber Optic Networking technology. The online course...
8 hours ago by chaycon1 on Google to build gigabit broadband to the home
Hi Dava, I'm glad to hear from you, and glad that you see things from the other side. I think that is the most important point of the whole...
8 hours ago by J.A. Watson on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and the Latest Tempest
please please please please please please kill that spam bot.
9 hours ago by dava4444 on ZDNet UK: faster, smarter, still IT all the way it didn't post the link it's 'Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta-1 First Look' on youtube :) Dava
12 hours ago by dava4444 on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and the Latest Tempest Hi James I disagree, Ubuntu needs a GUI update and this one IMO is quite good. your pics show a low res. here's a high res. on YouTube* The...
12 hours ago by dava4444 on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and the Latest Tempest Hi any news on the comment bot? knocking me back from my own blog is a bit cheeky lol *Mulder to Scully* "I think it has an agenda.." I know, I...
13 hours ago by dava4444 on ZDNet UK: faster, smarter, still IT all the way if you look at the Brentwood exchange on samknows it servers 21,000 residential propertiesm, Lowestoft serves 31,000! Come on BT sort yourselves...
13 hours ago by benny boy on BT fibre broadband coming to 69 more towns
[programming] H.264 - a sting in the tail http://reddit.com/bfu4q [zdnet.co.uk]
15 hours ago on Twitter by pbreddit
H.264 - a sting in the tail [programming] 13 points, submitted by zigzag [zdnet.co.uk] http://reddit.com/bfu4q
16 hours ago on Twitter by reddit Malware infects second Vodafone HTC phone: [zdnet.co.uk] A second Android-based HTC Magic from Vodafone has been... http://dlvr.it/KhKx
18 hours ago on Twitter by cybfor
Chatter preview http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/application-development/2010/03/17/salesforce-opens-up-chatter-developer-preview-40088348/
18 hours ago on Twitter by miyabi81 US gov t considers undercover social networking: [zdnet.co.uk] The Obama administration has considered sending... http://dlvr.it/Kh3L
18 hours ago on Twitter by cybforFor multi-store outlets, including retail, banking, grocery, gas, hospitality, convenience stores and others, reducing (or avoiding) the cost of in-store system support and maintenance while maintaining compliance with PCI and other requirements has become a strategic challenge.
Speaker: Dr. Chenxi Wang, Principal Analyst, Security and Risk Management, Forrester Research, Inc. As Enterprises are increasingly connected to the Internet and as hard organizational boundaries are fast disappearing, security professionals are facing fresh challenges in Enterprise computing.
This tutorial is for new MindManager users and teaches you how to get started, by creating maps, reading maps and organizing your information.
