In this series, we speak with our partner institutions about the collaborations shaping research and policy. This post highlights a collaboration between CSEP and University of Sussex Business School.
Meet Dr Arianna Gentilini, Research Associate in the Economics and Public Policy Department, Lord Sainsbury Fellow in Biopharma Productivity.
Meet Dr Nigel Steward, Professor of Practice and the Director of the Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance.
Author: Professor James Barlow
In 2024, the UK dropped out of the top ten countries in global manufacturing rankings.[i] The decline reflects long-standing structural weaknesses that stretch back decades, including a lack of coherent industrial strategy and inconsistent policies, inadequate adoption of innovation and productivity-enhancing practices, and insufficient investment in workforce training. These have left many of our manufacturing industries without a solid foundation for global competition. Compounding these challenges, geopolitical shifts have also led to other countries overtaking the UK – Russia’s surge in defence industry spending, a manufacturing boom in Mexico spurred by Chinese investment seeking to bypass US tariffs, and Taiwan’s continued dominance in semiconductor production.
