The important role of IT contractors in bringing about the economic recovery has been highlighted by a major endowment manager.

Roland Harwood, director of open innovation at the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, has emphasised the fact that investment in innovation has fallen over the downturn.

He stated that, despite this, nearly half of companies are putting more money into this area now than they were at the beginning of the recession, with only 11 per cent admitting they were doing less.

"The fastest growing innovation trend identified within the survey was 'open innovation'," he explained.

Mr Harwood stated that this area is being championed by companies like HP and Orange, IT contractors may be interested to discover.

Recent research by e-skills UK found that one in 18 people in the UK work in the ICT sector, the equivalent of 1.1 million people.

It predicted that the number of these professionals employed is expected to grow at a four times faster rate than other sectors over the next decade.