Rutherford Appleton Laboratory - Economic Impact

Economic Impact

In recent years, there has been an increasing political drive towards requiring that the science undertaken at RAL and the technology created there result in a proportional economic benefit to the UK in order to justify the investment of public funds in the laboratory. RAL management have argued that this is achieved in various ways, including:

• From the commercial products and services resulting from the scientific results which are achieved on the facilities at RAL (e.g., through new materials, new drugs etc.).
• Through the early warning of disasters predicted from terrestrial and space data acquired and analysed at RAL (e.g., radio/mobile phone interference predictions, severe weather predictions etc.).
• Through the training of specialist scientists and engineers at RAL, who then move into commercial companies.
• Through the standardisation of technologies which has resulted in the acceleration of economic growth through interoperability and interchangeability of products — especially in computing.
• By the enthusiasm generated in science by the results of large facilities (e.g., from astronomical images or from particle physics experiments), which leads to schoolchildren choosing scientific training and scientific careers in many fields.
• By technologies developed at RAL during the development of facilities themselves, which are then licensed to UK companies, or spin-out companies.