So, how does innovation work?

Michael Kenward

Like many countries, the UK has been screaming about the need for innovation. It is the only way to make the economy grow, says the official line. So Gordon Brown and Tony Blair have vied with one another to make the right noises about innovation and the science that, they believe, will make it happen.

Spending more on science may not have quite the same appeal as Daily Mail bait as throwing cash at health and education, but the area has come out at least as well as those other sinks of taxpayers' money. And yet we don't really know how innovation works.

If we did there would be no reason for the Economic and Social Research Council to launch a new initiative:

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