Governments should shift research funding away from military aims and wealth creation and towards reducing poverty in the developing world. So say social scientists from the University of Sussex, in the UK, who launched a report today at the Royal Society in London on how innovation can boost international development.

It is an “outrage” that billions of dollars are spent on R&D each year but people continue to live in poverty, says Melissa Leach, co-director of the university’s Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability (STEPS) Centre, which drew up the report.

To ensure science and innovation contribute more directly to development, the views of many people and groups including, farmers, activists and small businesses, must help set research agendas, rather than just the “technical elites”, the report says.

The report also recommends that an international “Global Innovation Commission” be set up under the United Nations to encourage open political debate on major global technology investments.

“Our vision is a world where science and technology work more directly for social justices, poverty alleviation and the environment. We want the benefits of innovation to be widely shared, not captured by narrow, powerful interest,” says Andy Stirling, co-director of the STEPS centre.

Responses to the report from the audience were mixed. One member criticised the report for not setting out how the proposed shift in innovation and science policy should be done. But others welcomed the call for researchers to focus more on development, social justice and environmental sustainability. As another audience member pointed out, the way to get researchers to do this is to simply change the criteria on which their work is assessed to include a measure of how it contributes to these challenges.