Analysis - Innovators face structural barriers

The credit crunch is squeezing advice services for technology start-ups, say those at the sharp end, and there should be more support for contract research. Inventiveness continues to flourish in the UK despite the credit crunch, if the evidence of the recent Cambridge Enterprise Conference is anything to go by. But structural issues are making it harder for inventors to become successful entrepreneurs. Some of these issues are to do with short-term politics. Others go to the heart of the way that the UK and Europe regard entrepreneurship and innovation.