Science diplomacy plays an important role in building UK technology sovereignty through international partnerships with partners which strengthen our shared capabilities, resilience and security.

Our Science & Technology Network, covering 65 locations, is a core pillar of the UK’s science diplomacy toolkit, which aims to develop and strengthen our partnership with international partners.

We have science and technology partnerships with a broad range of countries including the US and EU, Japan, India, South Korea, Switzerland, France and Germany. We are also active members of multilateral fora including OECD, G7 and G20. These partnerships are part of helping us ensure sovereign strengths and strengths through stable collaboration.

Science diplomacy supports UK technology sovereignty by building international partnerships which strengthen our capabilities, resilience and security. This is underpinned by our Science & Technology Network covering 65 locations which strengthens UK growth, security and global influence.

DSIT regularly assesses the impacts of our international collaboration on our science and technology capability. For example, internationally coauthored UK papers consistently outperform UK only research on citation impact.

We have partnerships with a broad range of countries including the US and EU, Japan, India, South Korea, Switzerland, France and Germany. We are also active members of multilateral fora including OECD, G7 and G20.

The membership and terms of reference of Cabinet committees is decided by the Prime Minister, as set out on gov.uk and the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology is a member of the Digital and Technology Committee. Matters related to science may be considered by a range of committees as relevant to their terms of reference.

The Department collects the following information for ISPF programmes with Japan.

Partner organisation name, Partner activity description, Relevant sector and ISPF theme, Total applications, Total awards, Activity status (live or closed), start and end dates, other countries involved (if multi-country programme), Original commitment figure, forecast spend, Actual spend.

We will confirm plans for publication of relevant data in due course.

The UK's obligations under Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights concern cultural participation, science, and intellectual property, and are the responsibility of a number of Government departments. Obligations relating to science fall within the remit of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

DSIT does not hold vacancy data specifically for the Science and Technology Sectors in London.

The department has no formal relationship with science and discovery centres and has therefore not made an assessment of their impact on education. We know many schools work with partners to enrich and supplement students’ core curriculum.

Research and development (R&D) tax reliefs are vital to economic growth, and will support an estimated £56 billion of business R&D expenditure a year by 2029-30.

In the Corporate Tax Roadmap, the Government committed to strengthening the administration of the reliefs by continuing to improve guidance, establishing an expert advisory panel, and publishing a consultation on widening the use of advance clearances. An R&D disclosure facility was launched at the end of 2024.

HMT is the lead department for taxation policy including R&D tax reliefs. The Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer have regular discussions on a range of issues.

DSIT supports startups and innovation across the UK, including through the UK’s innovation agency - Innovate UK. Over the last two years, Innovate UK has awarded £5.2 billion funding to more than 7,000 businesses across the UK.

Innovate UK published the State of Innovation 2024 report on 6 December. This draws on data from over 2,000 UK businesses, to provide a view of businesses’ innovation activities, challenges and plans for the year ahead.

The report does not specifically assess housing costs and cost of living, but assesses trends in barriers to innovation, including the cost of doing business, which will include these areas.

The science and technology jobs and skills dashboard has been developed by the department’s Unit for Future Skills alongside science and technology policy experts in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. It is expected to be published in due course. Once the dashboard is published, the expectation is for it to take less than one full time-equivalent staff member to maintain and develop further.

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.

Investment is at the very heart of the UK economy - it supports economic growth, creates jobs and enables improvements in productivity for new and existing firms. It is also essential for successful delivery of the Government's objective to make the UK a science and technology superpower by 2030.

The Department for Business and Trade promotes a range of investment opportunities across the science & technology sector. DBT works to attract foreign corporates to the UK, developing compelling investment propositions for DBT's international network to bring to prospective investors, this includes both sector-wide and place-based opportunities. DBT has dedicated based staff across the UK who work with the DAs/their agencies, wider DBT teams, Office for Investment and other UK government departments to deliver investment in priority areas, including science and technology. DBT teams work closely with partners to deliver events to attract investment, such as the Northern Ireland Investment Summit that was held in Belfast, September 2023.

The UK has 13 new Investment Zones which will benefit from £160 million each of Government funding to unlock foreign investment across priority sectors, especially science and technology, with a focus on driving innovation and creating quality jobs. These will be new hubs for investment and innovation across the UK and the funding spread over 10 years, will be spent on fiscal incentives and/or flexible spend to support attracting FDI. In line with the government's levelling up objectives, they are established in places with significant unmet productivity potential, where existing strengths and assets aligned to priority sectors can be leveraged to increase opportunities for local communities. Investment Zones will be established in partnership between central government, local government, research institutions and the private sector. The Investment Opportunity Fund is intended to double down on the objectives of Freeports and Investment Zones by providing a flexible, agile pot of funding that government can use to secure and respond to opportunities in these areas as they emerge.

The Government has a strong desire to maintain and enhance our position as a global science and technology superpower and we recognise the importance of the Oxford-Cambridge region as a globally renowned hub of science, research and innovation, with businesses and universities that are leading the way in life sciences, space and green technologies. At the East West Rail Route Update Announcement in May 2023, it was reconfirmed that East West Rail would approach to Cambridge from the south, serving the new Cambridge South station, and promoting greater economic growth given the proximity of the Biomedical Campus to Cambridge South station.

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.