I agree - there are stats in my post here: www.ersatzben.com/p/erasmus-an...

Posted a quick follow-up to this on my substack johnsonb.substack.com/p/erasmus-an...

People are, of course, entirely free to take moral positions on whatever they like - as are our public institutions. And others, equally, are free to disagree on moral grounds. (Motivated reasoning notwithstanding.)

Anyway, I’m sure this will all play out brilliantly for the HE sector come 2029… 🙈

And it’s all pushed for & negotiated by extremely well-educated, well-brought-up types, many of whom assert that this is a MORAL question about the UK's global worldview, not an OUTCOMES-based debate about how best to promote opportunity through international education for those most in need.

— let alone the UK. Life-changing for those kids to see horizons broaden before it's too late. All paid for by Turing Scheme. Compared to this impact, pumping £570m of taxpayers’ cash into Erasmus so that some PPE posho can spend a year in the Sorbonne feels like a real pisstake.

I got lots of private support for this today but also some “how very dare you” stuff. As I said to others: I keep remembering that last year my primary school teacher wife took a group of 10yo kids from deprived homes to Florence on an art trip - poor kids who had never been out of Brent —

Thank you so much, Paul!

Appreciate your efforts on this as always Hetan. On this occasion I understand the event will be chaired by the lead author (a woman), and not a panel either- more like lightning talks. I did check these details with them before posting this, but not otherwise involved (and can't make the event).

Interdisciplinary work here: www.ersatzben.com/p/what-actua...

Thanks, Hetan!

And we cover more in this short article by toolkit creators Helen Ewles (@helvisew.bsky.social), @sanjushdalmia.bsky.social , @pedroserodio.com and me. Special thanks to @freddieposer.com for brilliant coding + design!

🔗 ARTICLE: britishprogress.org/articles/wev...

This is a beta version and we need your feedback!

Explore the toolkit, test the features, and let us know what you think. Your input will help us improve this resource for the whole policy community.

🔗 TOOLKIT: rd-toolkit.britishprogress.org

Another dimension is ‘flexibility’:

🔄 Agile tools like Contracts for Innovation allow for rapid pivoting away from unpromising R&D paths.
🔒 But for others, like AMCs or Catapults, deliberate inflexibility and "funding lock-in" is a strategic feature to build investor confidence.

A key insight from our work is the ‘targetability’ trade-off:

🌊 Some tools like tax reliefs are great for general stimulus but poor for strategic targeting.
🎯 Others like innovation prizes are more "surgical" for solving specific challenges.

📈 Public & private R&D are partners, not rivals.

UK analysis suggests an average return of around 40% on public R&D, and research indicates that for every 10% increase in government-funded R&D, private R&D investment increases by an estimated 5-6%.