History

The National Enterprise Board was set up in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in 1975 to implement the Wilson Labour government's objective of extending public ownership of industry

Economy of the United Kingdom

The economy of the United Kingdom is the sixth-largest national economy in the world measured by nominal GDP and seventh-largest measured by purchasing power parity , and the third-largest in Europe measured by nominal GDP and second-largest measured by PPP...

. The plans were outlined in the 1974 White Paper

White paper

A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that helps solve a problem. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions, and are often requested and used in politics, policy, business, and technical fields. In commercial use, the term has also come to refer to...

 The Regeneration of British Industry and the Industry Act 1975 enacted these measures, establishing the NEB.

One of the first activities of the NEB was the Ryder Report

Ryder Report (British Leyland)

The Ryder Report was the official report produced for the Government of the United Kingdom in 1975 by Sir Don Ryder, newly appointed head of the UK's National Enterprise Board who was given the task of reporting on the British Leyland Motor Corporation and listing recommendations for its future.The...

, named for the NEB's new chairman, on the future of the British Leyland Motor Corporation

British Leyland Motor Corporation

British Leyland was a vehicle manufacturing company formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd . It was partly nationalised in 1975 with the government creating a new holding company called British Leyland Ltd which became BL Ltd in 1978...

.

After the Conservative Party took power in 1979 under Margaret Thatcher's leadership, the NEB's powers began to be eroded. The last Labour-appointed chairman of the NEB was Sir Leslie Murphy, who resigned with his entire board when Sir Keith Joseph (the new industry minister) decided to remove its responsibility for the government's holding in Rolls-Royce.

The next chairman was Sir Arthur Knight who was content to lose a number of companies, but strongly supported the Inmos

INMOS

Inmos Limited was a British semiconductor company, founded by Iann Barron, with both the head office and the design office at Aztec West in Bristol, it was incorporated in November 1978.- Products :...

 microchip project. However he eventually became frustrated by the government and resigned in November 1980. He was succeeded by his deputy, Sir John King (now Lord King of Wartnaby), who proceeded, with some vigour, to dismantle most of the board's remaining activities.

The NEB had a software initiative called INSAC. The memory

Computer memory

In computing, memory refers to the physical devices used to store programs or data on a temporary or permanent basis for use in a computer or other digital electronic device. The term primary memory is used for the information in physical systems which are fast In computing, memory refers to the...

 and microprocessor

Microprocessor

A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...

 company Inmos

INMOS

Inmos Limited was a British semiconductor company, founded by Iann Barron, with both the head office and the design office at Aztec West in Bristol, it was incorporated in November 1978.- Products :...

 was set up by the NEB in 1978.

In 1981, the NEB was combined with the National Research Development Corporation

National Research Development Corporation

The National Research Development Corporation was a non-departmental government body established by the British Government to transfer technology from the public sector to the private sector.-History:...

 (NRDC) to form the British Technology Group (BTG). The NRDC had been founded in 1948 by Attlee's Labour government

United Kingdom general election, 1945

The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...

 to commercialise British publicly funded research.

In 1991 BTG was transferred to the private sector

Private sector

In economics, the private sector is that part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state...

 and, as BTG

BTG

BTG plc , a public limited company is an international specialty pharmaceuticals company that is developing and commercialising products targeting critical care, cancer, neurological and other disorders...

 plc, has become a leading technology transfer company that commercialises intellectual property

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...

acquired from research organisations and companies around the world.