Government competitions are an old idea to encourage new thinking and new technology. Many of the great achievements of Victorian engineering began with the offer of a cash prize for a winning design.
The UK government’s small modular reactor competition is a modern example. It is far more than the usual process of inviting bids for a public sector contract. There are interim prizes of research funding and other support en route to the final prize of building a nuclear power station.
The winner of a government competition was announced in Northern Ireland this week: BH Estates, a small company in Co Down, will receive £4 million over three years to develop a mobile machine that removes excess phosphorous from slurry.
Alliance agriculture minister Andrew Muir described it as a “significant milestone” in managing farm waste.
This competition is one of several under the Lough Neagh Action Plan, unveiled by Muir in July. It is also part of a larger programme of government competitions to solve problems for the public sector, run by Stormont’s Department for the Economy since 2009.
It in turn is part of a UK-wide programme established in 2001, so funding is available from both Stormont and Westminster. Previously called the Small Business Research Initiative, its was renamed this year to Contracts for Innovation to reflect that businesses of any size can take part, as well as universities and non-profit organisations.
The programme has been a low-key success. Competitions currently running in Northern Ireland include early detection of potholes to cut road maintenance costs, optimising sewage treatment with artificial intelligence and using digital technology to provide more flexible school transport.
Competitions are overseen by a panel of academic and industry experts, known as the Matrix Panel. Mercifully, we are not depending on Stormont civil servants to decide who has come up with the cleverest invention.
Given the scale of the challenges facing our public sector, while the private sector is thriving, a dramatic expansion of the competition approach ought to be considered.
One obvious place to start would be reducing the cost of social housing. The Housing Executive budgets just over £180,000 to build a standard two-bedroom home, including land and administrative costs.
Northern Ireland has an innovative construction industry that must be bubbling over with ideas to get that cost down. If large firms are not motivated to work for less, or too conservative to revolutionise their working practices, upstart rivals could be another story.
Mivan in Antrim is one the world’s leading modular accommodation providers, supplying factory-built en-suite rooms that slot into hotels, cruise ships and student halls. Could it build houses?
New types of housing construction have failed to take off partly because banks are nervous about lending to builders and buyers. Stormont is counting on private finance to expand social housing – it has reformed housing associations to allow them to borrow privately and it intends to do the same for the Housing Executive.
However, Northern Ireland has its own banks and a burgeoning financial services sector. Innovation should not be seen as confined to science, technology and engineering. Somebody should be able to devise a guarantee that a new housing type will hold its value for the duration of a loan.
Public transport is another area where new thinking is urgently required. Belfast’s north-south Glider will cost £150m, essentially to build a 15-mile bus lane, most of which is already a bus lane.
Could digital technology be used to create a virtual bus lane, using traffic lights and satellite monitoring? Experiments in this have been conducted in England and Singapore. Even deploying such technology at a few tricky junctions might slash the costs of the route.
If there is £150m to spend, would it be better spent on new types of ultra-light tram? Coventry is planning a four-line network for just £190m.
The mere act of holding a competition changes thinking, cutting through political deadlocks and administrative inertia with the promise of radical solutions.
Although modular reactors are still at least a decade away and probably at least two, the long-ossified debate on nuclear power has already shifted from yes or no to large or small. Any competent politician will appreciate the significance of this alone.
It seems clear Muir has realised technological competitions can bypass intractable attitudes among farmers and perhaps among some of his own officials. He is hardly the only Stormont minister who could benefit from that insight.
The mere act of holding a competition cuts through political deadlocks and administrative inertia with the promise of radical solutions