One of the great problems we have with science and technology is that elite discussion (let alone public understanding) is based on sometimes dubious assumptions rather than on the basis of evidence. A good example is the underlying assumption that national R&D spending correlates with national rates of economic growth. It does not, as I will show. But this is not an argument for the unimportance of R&D. Rather it suggests that R&D must be thought about in less nationalistic ways, for which there are other compelling reasons. Avoiding the naïve economics of R&D is essential to good policies for R&D. At the same time we need to recognise more clearly that doing R&D is far from the only way of changing either the world, or the performance of the British economy.

David Edgerton was the founding director of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at Imperial College London, where he is now Hans Rausing Professor. One of Britain’s leading historians, he has challenged conventional analyses of science and technology for 20 years. He is the author of, among other works, The Shock of the Old: technology and global history since 1900, Science, Technology and the British Industrial ‘Decline’, 1870-1970 (Cambridge, 1996), and Warfare State: Britain 1920-1970, and writes for publications including Prospect, the London Review of Books, Nature, Times Higher Education Supplement, and the Guardian. He currently holds a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust.

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