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Rt. Hon. Stephen Byers - Former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Dec 1998 - Jun 2001)Science and Technology : The Choice We Face |
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CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY I am pleased to be here today as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and as Cabinet Minister for Science. The Foresight Programme provides an opportunity for stimulating business and others to think creatively about the future. The Foresight reports, the results of independent thinking of the panel members, provide an interesting contribution to the debate about the challenges and issues facing the UK. The Foresight reports are totally independent of government. Some of their conclusions we agree with. Of course, some not. The important thing is that we have an open and wide debate. Foresight provides a useful tool for assessing future priorities. We need to make sure we make the most effective use of it. I am therefore asking Lord Sainsbury, the Minister for Science and Innovation, to conduct a review of Foresight, to build on the success it has had and ensure that it maintains its focus on the challenges that lie ahead. Today's conference looks at an important theme - living in the digital future and the knowledge economy - which pulls together the ideas from a number of Foresight reports. Today I want to talk about science and technology. Its importance to the UK and the future challenges and choices we face. Whether to go back to a cycle of cuts in spending and decline in our science base or to increase investment and provide new opportunities. We have chosen investment and I want to explain why. We live in a world of rapid and far-reaching change. A world in which knowledge has become the most important asset and competitive advantage comes from the application of science, skills and new ideas. The successful economies of the future will excel at generating and disseminating knowledge and exploiting it commercially. In the 21st century the changes affecting industry are happening at an ever increasing speed. A speed which Government and industry hasn't always kept up with. But we must in the future. That means that the Government must - like business - focus on the future. Identifying the challenges and opportunities and the choices we need to make to succeed in the future. The challenge for Government is how to prepare Britain for a world in which knowledge is the new currency. Government has a key role to play. Not the old interventionist approach - picking winners, and all too often propping up the failing industries of the past rather than backing the growth industries of the future. Equally we must reject laissez faire indifference. A belief that the market always knows best. Instead we need an active industrial policy. A policy which puts in place the building blocks we need for the future. One of the key building blocks we need in the modern economy is a strong science and technology base. In the knowledge economy, more than any time before, science and technology will provide the new products, services and processes which create economic growth. And it will unlock radical improvements to our quality of life. There are many good examples of British inventions, which have been beneficial to employment and have had wider benefits. The Dyson vacuum cleaner. The Psion organiser. And the technology behind the "Walking with Dinosaurs" TV series, which came directly from a Department of Trade and Industry grant - a Smart award. There are other lesser known but equally important inventions. Like Echochek - which means that doctors can now tell whether a baby has any hearing problems within hours of birth - where before hearing loss was often only detected at the age of two years. We have a remarkable track record in this country of world class science, engineering and technology. This has been underplayed. It's something we should celebrate. Many of mankind's most important breakthroughs in understanding about our world and the universe have been made in this country. From Newton's theories of motion and gravity to Crick's involvement in the discovery of the structure of DNA. From Darwin's theory of evolution to Rutherford's discovery of atomic structure. In terms of internationally recognised prizes, UK scientists steadily claimed around 10% of all awards throughout the last century. And the UK continues to punch way above its weight. We have just 1% of world's population, but we produce 8% of the world's scientific papers. And we produce more papers per pound spent on research than any other country in the world. In the 21st century, we must ensure we are a world leader in science. In recent years Governments in other countries - in Germany, the US, Japan and elsewhere - have been increasing the amount they spend on science. When we came into office in 1997 real terms funding for science and engineering had been put into reverse three times in the previous fifteen years. Boom and bust in the economy was mirrored by boom and bust in the science budget. The results were disastrous. Just as business needs economic stability so science needs stable funding to succeed. Research infrastructure was crumbling. Opportunities were being denied. Coming into office we immediately faced a choice. We could allow the science budget to continue to decline. Or we could make a strategic decision that this country needed to invest more, not less, on science and that science needed long term security of funding, not short-term uncertainty. The difficult public expenditure decisions we took early in this Government quickly helped to create the conditions in which we could invest properly for the long term good. To make our science and engineering base 'fit for the future' we had to act decisively. So, two years ago the Government announced increases in science spending which were amongst the highest ever awarded - a public/private package in partnership with the Wellcome Trust of £1.4 billion over three years. We wanted to send a very clear signal that this Government believes that the health of the science and engineering base is crucial to the economic future of this country. Now, we are, once again making another huge injection of investment in science. We are able to do this because instead of the vicious cycle of rising inflation and unemployment that dogged much of Britain's post-war economic history, we are now in a virtuous circle. Where rising employment is cutting the costs of economic failure, freeing up public money for investment in the infrastructure and services this country so badly needs. Because of these changes, debt interest costs will be £5 billion a year lower. Where once 42p in every new pound of public spending was going on social security payments and debt interest, it is now 17p. Over the next three years the science budget will grow by an average of 7% a year in real terms. In total, over the same period, some £725 million has been added to the budget, alongside a further £225 million of investment by the Wellcome Trust. That's nearly another £1 billion on top of the £1.4 billion package we announced in 1998. Our first priority has been to take emergency action to repair the damage done to research infrastructure in our universities as quickly as possible. After nearly twenty years of neglect, many of our scientists and engineers were struggling in outdated buildings and with outmoded equipment. In 1998 we established the Joint Infrastructure Fund - a groundbreaking £750 million public private partnership with the Wellcome Trust to fund first class research infrastructure projects. Today I am able to announce the fourth round of awards under this fund. We are providing £125 million of new investment in research infrastructure across the UK. From Glasgow to Bristol universities. Newcastle to University College London. Over the next three years we will be stepping up this investment in infrastructure. The new Science Research Investment Fund will provide £1 billion of investment in the continued improvement of research facilities, refurbishment and new equipment in UK universities. Having acted decisively to bring research infrastructure back up to world class standards, we also needed to think hard about what science we should be investing in - what will earn the nation the best return? I announced two weeks ago that, for the next three years, the Government has identified genomics, e-science and basic technology as priority research areas and will invest £252 million in research in these areas. This will be in addition to the huge range of excellent science which the Research Councils already sponsor and carry out. Alongside this investment in the science base, we are widening the opportunities and incentives for people to take up a career in science. We have made a decisive break with the past by providing for substantial increases in the basic PhD stipend. Over the past thirty years, stipends have barely changed in real terms. Over the next three years they will rise by nearly a quarter in real terms. In a knowledge driven economy, people and their ideas are the most valuable asset. Successful economies will be ones which draw upon the skills and potential of all their people. So we need to turn the brain drain into a brain gain. To ensure that we retain the best of the science world in this country and to bring in the stars from other parts of the world as well. That's why we are setting up, with the Wolfson Foundation and the Royal Society, a special fund so the United Kingdom can attract the best academics to work in this country. This will help in the recruitment of up to 50 top researchers - so that the UK can compete in the world market for the best academics. More than that it's a signal that years of neglect, of disdain for the scientific community, are over. In 1997 we said we would strengthen our capabilities in science and technology. We have. But we still face a number of challenges over the next ten years. To ensure we maximise the benefits from our investment in science: translating it into new industries, new jobs, and a better quality of life for all our people. And to equip our science base to respond to the key issues which will affect us in the future. In the modern, knowledge economy it is not enough to generate research - we also have to make the most of it. To turn ideas into products which can improve our lives. It essential that we maximise the benefits of the huge investment we are making in science. We must ensure that this investment translates into the successful businesses and economic growth which provide the resources to fund essential public services like health and education. We must give universities a new mission to play an active role in the economy. To incentivise them to make the most of the intellectual capital which they generate. And the industrial sponsorship work of my Department will need increasingly to focus on innovation and ensuring that the growth industries of the future develop from our scientific excellence. We have already introduced incentives for universities to exploit the knowledge that their science generates. For example, the University Challenge Fund, is helping over 30 British universities to turn their research into real business opportunities. For example, the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York, won a £4.5 million grant to back 100 new high-tech companies arising from the research in the universities. But now it is time to step up a gear. That's why we are introducing a new £140 million fund -the Higher Education Innovation Fund. Up until now, universities have received funding from Government for teaching and for research. The funding system has never recognised knowledge transfer - the commercial application of research - as a role of universities. Some Universities have been very successful at working with business to ensure that research is transferred to industrial applications. But this success has been based on local decisions - by the universities themselves. For the first time, the Higher Education Innovation Fund will provide a permanent third stream of funding for universities - aimed at industrial research and innovation. I want to see universities become an active and integral part of the economy in every region. To act as growth points for high added value businesses across the country. If we are to build a dynamic knowledge economy, we need to develop the industries of the future and use science and technology to upgrade established industries. The challenge is to ensure that we have the knowledge we need for these industries. How we identify the key areas of research which will create the big opportunities of the future. How British universities can build on their world class expertise and embrace a new entrepreneurial role, bringing forward the businesses of the future. How business can develop stronger links with universities, to turn our scientific and engineering excellence into world-beating products and services. To meet these challenges we must make choices. To invest in our science infrastructure and in cutting edge research. Not to return to stop-go funding for science. To introduce an open and accountable system of regulation for science. To ensure people are well-informed about scientific development. To provide opportunities for making the most of the talent of all our people. And to attract and retain the best scientists. To introduce new incentives for the commercial application of research. An active industrial policy not laissez faire indifference. To ensure that we are at the forefront of future industries. Not lagging behind our competitors. To build a high skilled, hi-tech economy with high quality, high wage jobs. Not a low-skill, low-wage economy. These are the choices we will make. By supporting science and technology, by investing in the future our people and our country will benefit. |
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Other speeches by Rt. Hon. Stephen Byers - Former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Dec 1998 - Jun 2001)
(the following are available from the archive) |
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