Gordon Brown: Here is how to create 300,000 Scots jobs in 10 years
Go to Dundee and you'll find the most advanced video games technologies that rival Grand Theft Auto and which had their origins in the city.
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Go to Aberdeen and you'll find them developing wind and wave power and hydrogen to complement the world leadership we enjoyed in North Sea oil and gas.
Come to Glasgow and the city that was once home to shipbuilding and steel is now at the centre of the world life science industry, with academic, clinical and commercial expertise from drug discovery to the most up-to-date personalised medicine based on DNA, and remarkable advanced manufacturing.
And look at Edinburgh, where not only is fintech moving forward, but the city has had for 60 years a lead in artificial intelligence and is home to some of the most advanced computers in the world.
But to convert our ideas and innovations into jobs, we have to invest in the future – in research, in education, and most of all, in people.
For every £1 we spend on research in our world-class universities, we get back just £1.46 in business investment. That's half what the UK delivers. Across the OECD, it's more than triple. And look at the skills gap. We turn out a higher share of graduates than in most countries in the world – but too many well qualified Scottish university leavers end up working in non graduate jobs.
This is not just a shortfall hurting our economic growth. It's indicative of the fact that we in Scotland are squandering our potential.
The report, Innovation Nation, pulls no punches. It says what many of us already know: the system isn't working. We have the talent, the research, and the ambition. We have the capability - and the need - to deliver inclusive economic growth, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs through exciting growth sectors such as life sciences, advanced manufacturing, and green energy. What we don't have is the leadership and joined-up thinking to make it count.
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown (Image: free) That's why this week in Glasgow Our Scottish future is bringing together some of the brightest minds in the world of innovation and technology. With us is Kate Bingham who pioneered the vaccine task force that saved thousands of job of lives. Kasim Kutay who heads one of most Europe's most innovative bioscience groups, Novo Nordisk. Michael Spence, the Nobel Prize winner who's the expert on AI.
Jim Rowan who has headed not only Volvo but BlackBerry and Dyson in his time, pioneering the development of manufacturing from his Scottish engineering genius. And we have David Sainsbury the author of Windows of Opportunity and Britain's most successful science minister who has spent a lifetime arguing for the importance of innovate clusters to growth.
We have Chris van der Kyl who has himself set up a large number of innovative companies from his base in Dundee. And we will have key investors from the public and private sectors and other economic experts. What's more we will have trade minister Douglas Alexander and Scottish labour leader and Anas Sarwar at an event to be introduced by the SNP Lord Provost of Glasgow.
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For as we will show late in the week it is not too late to steer a new direction. A real industrial strategy. Innovation hubs in our great cities. Local authorities, UK and Scottish governments working together to drive real change in local areas across Scotland. And support for the businesses that want to grow, scale, and stay in Scotland.
These recommendations represent a win-win for Scotland, where we raise the roof and lift the floor – creating good jobs, tackling poverty, and building a fairer, greener, more dynamic Scotland.
We have a choice. Stick with the status quo, with patchy growth and missed opportunities. Or take bold action, seize the initiative, and once again lead the world in science, in enterprise, and in building a better society.
Let's take that chance. Let's build Scotland's future together – and become the innovation nation we were always meant to be.
Gordon Brown was Britain's Labour Prime Minster from 2007-2010
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