Science, Innovation and Technology Committee
14 July 2026
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Science, Innovation and Technology Committee House of Commons
00:05 - 01:40
Speaker 7
Order, order. And welcome to today's meeting of the Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee. And I want to thank our witnesses and indeed our members and our staff for being here in London in the high summer temperature today. And if there is a need for a temperature break, please let me know. Now, this is the final session of this parliamentary term, and we are discussing a topic which is a real priority for the committee.
It's something that's come up repeatedly through multiple inquiries, and that is how the UK can encourage the emergence, diffusion, and absorption of innovation across the UK economy. So we are really delighted to welcome two witnesses at the forefront of delivering the government's ambitions in this area. Tom Adeyoola, the Executive Chair of Innovate UK, and later this morning we'll be talking to Lord Willetts, Chair of the Regulatory Innovation Office. But I want to start by welcoming Tom, who came just over a year ago to our pre-appointment session. And Tom, when you came then, you were very definitely a man with a plan.
I know you said you were going to spend your first month getting under the skin of the organization, and then your second month clarifying and simplifying its purpose, and then month three getting the structure to deliver on that purpose. So how has the plan gone? What have been your main achievements in your first year?
01:40 - 02:29
Speaker 2
Yeah, so if I go back to that sort of first 100-day plan that I had with reference to trying to understand the organization, then simplify and clarify the purpose, and then write the plan in terms of the forward strategy in time for Indro Mukerjee's arrival at the end of August. I think in the first six weeks I visited all of the catapults around the country. So I think I did over 20 visits in that first six weeks to really understand where Innovate UK money was spent. So the catapults being a third of the annual budget, really got under the skin of understanding the organization, meeting all of the different departments and divisions of Innovate. And then ultimately worked on that simplifying part of the purpose.
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