MoD ‘sitting on’ dozens of inventions which could help solve NHS issues and grow UK economy

A new alliance of big defence firms is joining forces to call for the government to ‘release the potential’ of new technology which has been held under lock and key for decades.

Announcing the new Technology and Growth Alliance, with members including Thales and Leonardo, founder Hetti Barkworth-Nanton said intellectual property (IP) has been left “invisible, unexploited and stranded.”

She told LBC: “You can think about microwave, the internet, GPS and even penicillin - all of those came from research in defence. But they don’t benefit anybody if they’re sitting in the lab.

“We’re trying to come together with industry, academia, investors - with frankly anyone who believes they can make a difference in pulling that brilliant invention out into civilian markets, benefiting society and ultimately improving the public purse and the growth of the UK plc.”

Hetti Barkworth-Nanton is chair of Ploughshare Innovations, an MOD-owned company which is tasked with releasing defence designs to the wider market, to benefit society.

But she told LBC over the past two decades, they’ve only averaged one spin-out company, to expand on the developments, every other year.

“That should be 20 or 30 spin-outs every single year,” she said, “creating small businesses, start-ups that can grow, scale and deliver to society and the economy. That’s what we need to unlock.

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“Over the course of the last 20 years, Ploughshare has delivered close to £150 million of gross value add, as a result of the work that we’ve been doing. But if we had been right across the enterprise doing this from day one, I think that figure could be £5 billion.”

The defence secretary will later announce the first project as part of an agreement between Ukraine and the UK to share new tech developments and intellectual property.

John Healey will tell the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition in East London that Britain will mass produce interceptor drones, for Ukraine to defend against daily Russian attacks from the sky.

Hailing the deal, he said: “We are revving up our world-leading defence industry. We will innovate at wartime pace, support UK and Ukrainian security, and boost jobs here in Britain.

“This deal is a first of its kind, giving UK industry unprecedented access to the latest equipment designs, supporting Ukraine in its fight to defend against Putin’s illegal invasion and showing how defence can be an engine for growth.”

Defence firm bosses have told LBC that the same desire to share innovations should be extended to other sectors within Britain.

Mike Sewart, Chief Technology Officer at Thales, told LBC: “There are a lot of examples where technology at a fundamental level can pivot between two different sectors and it’s a case of leveraging the research and development from one sector and moving it to another.

“There are a number of examples where organisations have dormant IP that’s sitting there and just needs that creative spark - a leg up for organisations - to think we can leverage and build on that to create value elsewhere in the ecosystem.

“There are examples around artificial intelligence where it’s relevant in financial services, retail and in defence - it’s a pervasive technology that spans multiple sectors and it's the same with energy systems.”

One of the biggest challenges for releasing IP related to defence is the security classification often attached to it.

The Technology and Growth Alliance is suggesting a rethink of how that works.

Mike Sewart said: “Quite often in the sector we default to a higher classification because it’s easier to do, but that constrains people from being able to see things.

“We have to be able to look at how we can work across those barriers to enable better collaboration."