DESIGN PLUS CASE ANNUAL LECTURE
Embedding Science in
the Heart of Government
The Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance argues that science
needs to be embedded in government. By Neil Tyler
When the Chancellor
announced in his budget
plans to increase public R&D
expenditure to £22bn by 2024/25,
he greatly surpassed previous targets
set by the Government and the
Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser
Sir Patrick Vallance would have been
excused for a allowing himself a
moment of satisfaction.
While the UK has a reputation for
being good at research, considering
its size and relative levels of
investment, it could certainly be doing
a lot better at using this research
strength to foster innovation.
When Sir Patrick gave the CaSE
Annual Lecture at the Francis Crick
Institute at the end of January, he
made the point that while it was
difficult to know what the right amount
of investment was for R&D he made
it clear that, “The UK currently
underinvests, and needs to get to
2.4% of GDP and beyond in terms
of research investment. It is clear
that a mixture of public and private
investment is required to reach this
target, a fact that’s been proven by
other countries who have successfully
increased their respective research
intensities over the last few years.”
CaSE Executive Director Dr
Sarah Main described the increase
in funding, seen in the budget, as
‘supercharging public investment’
in science in an announcement that
went further and much faster than
expected.
“Government has pushed hard to
front-load public investment in the
effort to boost the contribution of
research and innovation to the UK
economy and attract private R&D
investment to follow.
“It’s an ambitious program and a
huge investment in a short period of
time. It must be spent well to ensure
that an R&D decade delivers real
benefit for everyone in the UK.”
Among the funding announcements
were £800 million towards a new
blue-skies funding agency to invest
in high-risk, high-reward science,
modelled on ‘ARPA’ in the United
States; a £200 million investment
programme with the British Business
Bank towards health and life
sciences innovation; £400 million for
investment in research, infrastructure
and equipment across the UK,
particularly in basic research and
physical sciences and a further £300
million for experimental mathematical
research to attract global talent over
the next five years.
Science in government
Despite this welcome news there
are significant problems when it
comes to how science is viewed and
used in government, according to Sir
Patrick, and the theme of his talk
at the Frick Institute was on how to
embed science within government
departments and to ensure that
it played a role when it comes to
decision making.
He referenced the coronavirus
during his speech, but that was well
before the issue became a global
one turning into a pandemic. His
Above: The
Government’s Chief
Scientific Adviser, Sir
Patrick Vallance
argument about the role of science
in government has been given far
greater urgency in the light of recent
developments.
Sir Patrick began his talk by
reflecting on some advice he had
received from a senior civil servant
before he took the role of GCSA,
which was that although science has
a presence in government, it is not
universally present.
“There should be a much greater
focus on embedding science across
all government departments,”
explained Sir Patrick. “Economics, a
social science, underpins all areas of
government policy and science and
research should be embedded in a
systematic way. How we achieve that
is the challenge going forward.”
“Scientific issues have implications
for practically every area of policy
and there are all sorts of challenges
from transport, renewable energy, and
the ageing population, to security,
emergency issues and housing,” Sir
Patrick explained.
This isn’t a new view, however.
“The UK currently
underinvests,
and needs to get
to 2.4% of GDP
and beyond in
terms of research
investment”
Sir Patrick Vallance
www.newelectronics.co.uk 24 March 2020 33
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