Head of UKRI and academics to give perspective on the UK science and technology strategy

The Committee will hear from the Head of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Co-Chair of the Council for Science and Technology, which advises the Prime Minister on science and technology and made a number of recommendations around the concept of the UK as a “science superpower”, and academics from different stages in their careers.   

The Committee seeks to understand whether the Government is on track to meet its science and technology targets, where it needs to improve, and what policies it should introduce to do so.  

The Committee will ask its academic witnesses about the part universities and academics should play in the UK’s science and technology policy, and about morale in universities.  

The public evidence session will take place at 10.15am (GMT) on Tuesday 26 April 2022 in Committee Room 3 and can be viewed live on Parliament TV.

10:15am  

• Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, Head of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) 
• Lord Browne of Madingley, Co-chair of the Council for Science and Technology 

11:15am 

• Dr Beth Mortimer, Royal Society University Research Fellow at University of Oxford 
• Professor Sir Richard Friend, Cavendish Professor of Physics at University of Cambridge 

Possible question topics include: 

• Whether the UK has a coherent and defined science and technology policy  
• What the establishment of the National Science and Technology Council and the Office for Science and Technology means for UK science and technology  
• How to increase private sector investment in research and development 
• What morale is like among academics 
• How to ensure the incentives in academia encourage research with wide benefits