A representative of the World Economic Forum told the audience at Davos that “we own the science”. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that scientific research in the UK is impartial, objective and ethical, regardless of who is funding it?

There were five fewer spinouts owned by Higher Education Providers formed in 2022-23 compared to 2021-22 based on the Business and Community Interaction data. However, this was accompanied by an 8.9% increase in the number of spinouts surviving at least three years. The government is committed to increasing the commercialisation of university research and accepted all the recommendations of the independent review of university spinouts in November 2023.

DSIT has made significant strides towards enhancing collaboration with industry and philanthropic partners to bolster investment.

Last year’s successful Global Investment Summit attracted more than £29 billion, including landmark investments in AI, life sciences and quantum. We will continue to build on our collaborative approach to increase philanthropic and private investment, including working with DBT and the Office for Investment, to further our investment ambitions.

We announced £25 million for UK Biobank conditional on philanthropic match-funding within a consortium. So far, we have secured £16 million from philanthropists Eric Schmidt and Ken Griffin, and work is underway to secure further donations.

DSIT works closely with the Department for Education, UK Research and Innovation and other research funders to understand the factors that affect the financial sustainability of research and the impact that this might have on the realisation of those ambitions.

As part of the government’s devolution deals, DSIT is committed to working with Mayoral Combined Authorities to strengthen collaboration on science, innovation and technology.

Through the Innovation Accelerator programme, DSIT with UKRI and DBT are championing the UK’s science, technology and innovation offer and promoting regionally-led activities in Glasgow, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.

Great campaigns promote UK export or investment opportunities. The GREAT.gov.uk website provides support for UK companies, overseas buyers and overseas investors into the UK for a broad range of sectors including science and technology.

The Guarantee has provided comprehensive support to UK researchers and businesses. As of 31 January 2023 UKRI has issued 3,021 Grant Offer Letters for awards of £1.56 billion, including issuing 656 Grant offer letters for awards of £149.9m for the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions scheme.

Continuing DSIT’s commitment to support R&D for international development, the Department has invested £280 million in ODA R&D for activity already live under the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and the Newton Fund over this Spending Review period; and, £218 million of ODA R&D for new activity under the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF). Annual spend data will be available through the established “Statistics on International Development” (SID) process.

My Department is committed to ensuring that we continue to attract the best and brightest global talent, as set out in the Science & Technology Framework.

The Government has made good progress in simplifying and launching new skilled visa routes, and the UK’s points-based immigration offer enables talented scientists, researchers and innovators to come to the UK through a number of visa routes.

My Department will continue to work with the Home Office to ensure the immigration system meets the Government’s Science & Technology Superpower ambitions.

The Government has no current plans to establish an expert advisory group on non-animal research. The Government is committed to fully implementing the 3Rs, techniques that replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in research, including transitioning to non-animal methods, wherever possible. The Government funds the National Centre for the 3Rs (NC3Rs), which is widely recognised for its expertise, and delivers a range of initiatives to help the scientific community put the 3Rs into practice. The NC3Rs has recently set out its three-year strategy to increase the focus on animal replacement technologies and champion high standards in animal research.

The government’s November 2023 ‘Response to the Independent Review of the RDI Organisational Landscape’ announced the creation of a new Metascience Unit, jointly run across Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), with an initial funding commitment of £10m. The unit will deliver a competitive grants programme and will also conduct experiments to test and robustly evaluate the effectiveness of changes in the funding processes delivered by UKRI.

This Government has created, and will shortly publish, an interactive digital tool to map the UK’s innovation clusters. The tool is the first of its kind will give investors, researchers and policymakers unprecedented visibility of the UK’s established and emerging science and research strengths and innovation assets. By providing investors and others with more insight into the breadth of innovation strengths and opportunities that exist right across the UK, this tool will support our ambition to drive more investment into the UK’s clusters of R&D and Innovation excellence.

Once the bespoke deal for the UK’s association to Horizon Europe is adopted, the UK will be able to join the governance of EU programmes. This ensures that the UK can shape collaboration taking place under Horizon Europe going forward including discussions on the priorities of Framework Programme 10.

This agreement secures UK association to Horizon Europe and Copernicus through to 2027 when these programmes finish. This gives UK researchers and businesses certainty over the access of this programme through to its conclusion in 2027 and for the remainder for 2023 where bids will continue to be assessed under transitional measures.

The Government has a longstanding ambition to unlock institutional capital for investment into productive finance in a prudent and responsible manner. Investment in long-term, productive asset classes can offer UK savers higher potential returns as part of a diverse and balanced portfolio of investments. Since 2017, significant action has been taken to remove barriers to productive investment while ensuring that investment decisions remain the sole responsibility of fund managers and trustees

Most recently, building on regulatory measures to give institutional investors the flexibility to invest diversely, the Government has announced the Long-Term Investment for Technology & Science (LIFTS) competition. This will provide up to £500 million to support new funds designed to catalyse investment from institutional investors into the UK’s pioneering science and technology businesses.