Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted for many reasons to be here this morning to open your new Advanced Technology Institute. Firstly, because it is one of many schemes that has received funding from the Government's Joint Infrastructure Fund. JIF was the first scheme that the present Government set up to rebuild the science and engineering infrastructure of our universities, which had fallen into a serious state of disrepair over the previous decade.
The Government believes that the quality of science in this country is a major national asset. A recent study by the Institute of Scientific Information in the USA showed that British research produced 13% of the world's top – that is, most cited – papers in 1998 as measured across a wide spectrum of disciplines.
That is why in July of this year we announced a dedicated capital funding stream, increasing to £500 million a year by 2005-6 for universities' research infrastructure. And why the science budget will be increasing by 10% per annum in real terms over the period covered by this Spending Review.
The second reason for being delighted to be here is the advanced Technology Institute will bring together six research groups from three schools within the university to stimulate cross-disciplinary research, and the multi-purpose facility will be capable of rapid redirection of use. I believe strongly that many of the most exciting developments in the years ahead will spring from multi-disciplinary research and I am therefore delighted that this bold move is being taken.
I am not certain whether Science Ministers are allowed to have an opinion about architecture. But I believe that we have in this country today some of the best modern architects in the world, and that Nicholas Grimshaw is one of the most exciting of them. I am therefore delighted that you chose him to design the centre.
Finally, we need to encourage more women to take up and continue careers in science and Technology. At a time when we desperately need more scientists and engineers to increase wealth creation and the quality of our lives, it is absurd that there is such a waste of talent. I am therefore delighted that the Advanced Technology Institute is being named after Daphne Jackson, who was the first woman professor of Physics in the UK and who served as professor of Physics and Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Surrey from 1971 until her untimely death from cancer in 1991. In the last year we have set up the Science and Engineering Ambassadors scheme which encourages young people in industry and universities to work with schools and provide them with role models, and I am determined that many of these young people will be women, and many will come from ethnic minorities.
For all these reasons, I am delighted to be here today and to formally declare the Daphne Jackson building open.
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