The Leitch Review (2006) was tasked with considering the UK's long-term skills needs. It proposes that at the current rate of development, the UK will still lag behind its competitors in 2020. Although the review does not specifically cover researchers as a cohort, it does recognise the value of higher level skills.
"One of the most powerful levers for improving productivity will be higher level skills. Postgraduate, or Level 5 skills, such as MBAs and PhDs..."
"...higher level skills are key drivers of innovation, entrepreneurship, management, leadership and research and development critical to a high skills, high performance economy increasingly in demand from high performance, global employers...[and are] an important feature of greater employer collaboration with HE."