Biotechnology and Advanced Technological Infrastructure Policies: The Example of the UK’s Protein Engineering Club

This chapter examines a policy experiment in the UK — the Science and Engineering Research Council’s Protein Engineering Club — which in many respects encapsulates the ambitions for advanced technological infrastructure policies. Technological infrastructure policies are aimed at building capabilities which are industry relevant and therefore different from straight science capabilities. They embody both human capital and physical capital. In particular, technological infrastructure policies: develop generic capabilities geared to sectoral needs rather than those of individual firms; promote multidisciplinarity in that the capabilities involved combine science and engineering skills; are precompetitive and generate only indirect economic value in that further investments are necessary before firms can commercialize a new product or process; and involve economies of scope, bringing together a critical mass of capabilities, rather than the traditional economies of scale associated with normal production activities.