The Government announced an initial £250 million of investment in research and development to drive early work on the diversification agenda. As set out in the Diversification Strategy, the early focus is to address the concentration of supply in the radio access network portion of the supply chain, by stimulating development of alternatives and building demand. As the Committee notes, the sector invests a significant amount of money in research and development on an annual basis, across the full range of network domains, and the Government’s aim is to supplement that investment in a targeted and appropriate manner in order to address the lack of diversity in critical network functions. The Government agrees with the Committee that coordinating research and development across the existing academic and commercial research and development activity is key to ensuring best value for money and to drive outcomes. The Government is committed to setting out a clear and long term vision for research and development activity that will drive the process of diversification and will build on the findings of the Diversification Taskforce working closely with industry and academia to agree priorities. As part of this, the Government is exploring the best way of utilising existing testing facilities and testbeds across the UK. In doing so the Government is interested in the potential of a ‘federated’ model that decentralises activity to enable collaboration and innovation around a shared long-term vision. The Government is also developing targeted measures for investing in projects to develop products and demonstrate their performance, as well as establishing new, independent testing facilities where necessary for verification testing and network integration. The UK Telecoms Lab will play a central role in this developing ecosystem and will partner with other government funded initiatives such as the SmartRAN Open Network Interoperability Centre (SONIC) and with projects funded as part of DCMS’s £200 million 5G Testbeds and Trials Programme. Collectively these and future initiatives—including those led by industry—will help to address research and development needs beyond security and validation and will encompass the broader supply chain and other emerging technologies. The Government is also encouraged by announcements from suppliers including NEC and Mavenir Wireless to base 5G research and innovation centres in the UK and will explore opportunities to form close links between those facilities and the broader UK ecosystem. The Government also recognises the importance of stimulating and incentivising demand to ensure the effective commercialisation of research and to capitalise on industry’s momentum in rolling out 5G. The Taskforce has recommended setting out a clear ambition for the deployment of equipment from alternative suppliers, or from Open RAN solutions, to a meaningful proportion of the network. Such an ambition has the potential to send a clear signal to the global market that the UK is serious in its commitment to a diverse, competitive and open supply chain, however it will also need to be realistic and achievable, balancing the urgency to diversify with the risk of mandating the use of technologies before they can offer the right level of customer experience. The Taskforce has also suggested that measures to stimulate the market organically are more likely to effect lasting and meaningful change than regulation at this stage. The Government is working closely with network operators to support them in actively pursuing diversification and will set out further steps before summer recess. Finally, the Government is committed to strengthening UK capability and establishing the UK as a key player in the global supply chain and will develop a coordinated and strategic approach to research, development and innovation to drive this. In particular, the Government will focus on long-term trends in the telecoms technology roadmap, informed by an assessment of the way future networks are expected to evolve and with a focus on future connectivity needs.