The Treasury has announced a consultation into how to encourage innovation and strengthen the skills base of scientists and engineers in the UK.

Sir Gareth Robert's review will look at understanding the reasons why businesses in the UK sometimes struggle to recruit skilled staff in these areas, which are considered vital to develop the UK's economy. As well as examining the numbers of scientists and engineers in the UK and the jobs they do, the review will be looking at the skills needed by businesses for their R&D activity,and at the skills gained by science and engineering graduates and postgraduate students,particularly PhD students.A major focus of the work will be to investigate how businesses and universities communicate and collaborate in providing relevant training to students.

The review team are keen to recieve responses from people working in business and universities, including students, in a series of meetings over the coming months. The findings are expected to influence the Government's next spending review. A deadline for responses has been set for 31 July 2001, but the review team are happy to hear from people after these dates.