SPA has extracted the main points of Prime Minster Tony Blair’s latest speech on science.
On the next page the Conservative and Liberal Democrat science spokesmen comment.

‘Britain’s path to the future – lit by the brilliant light of science’

Tony Blair is optimistic

The economic importance of science

Our challenge is to couple science and economic purpose.

The science budget has more than doubled, from £1.3 billion to £3.5 billion, in less than a decade. The number of science undergraduates in the UK has gone up by a quarter since 1997. The research budget itself has doubled.

Expenditure on R&D has increased by more than 20 per cent in real terms since 1997. But compared to our competitors it is still too low. We have an ambition to increase overall R&D from 1.9 per cent of GDP, where it is now, to 2.5 per cent by 2014.

We have been the first government to set out a long-term vision in science. The Ten-Year Science and Innovation Investment Framework set out our ambition to make the UK the premier destination for science and innovation.

In seven of the ten major areas of research the UK lags behind only the US. We have more entries in the top 50 world universities than the rest of Europe put together. In bio¬medical science we have three of the top five universities in the world.

But the competition we face is intense. And we have weaknesses too. The UK has failed to develop any major new technology-based companies in the past decade; total venture capital investment in early stage technology companies is not increasing; business R&D is not rising as a share of GDP.

Government action

We need to push on with initiatives like the Higher Education Innovation Fund and the Technology Strategy Board.

As part of our forward policy process, the government is considering how to use public procurement – amounting to £150 billion per annum – to stimulate innovation and help small companies develop fast. We have concentrated on raising the level of innovation in manufacturing. We need to do the same today for services.

Alistair Darling has announced the Global Science and Innovation Forum Strategy to make the UK the first choice for business investment in R&D, and for foreign universities and scientists.

We will be creating stronger international ties with China and India by extending our UK/US Science Bridges schemes to them. The first international UK Research Council office will open in Beijing next year. And we are working with the Royal Society to establish a new, high profile, prestigious international fellowship and alumni scheme to firmly establish the UK as ‘partner of choice’ for scientific collaboration in the twenty-first century.

So, the basis for world-class science is in place. But nothing in a modern economy is forever. There are two things in particular that threaten the strong position we have attained.

Reject anti-science

The first is perhaps the most difficult issue of all. Government must show leadership and courage in standing up for science and rejecting an irrational public debate around it. 

The anti-science brigade threatens our progress and our prosperity. We need political and science leadership that stands up to them.

BSE, GM foods, MMR, stem cells – these experiences have given us a template of how to conduct a rational conversation about science. In government, we need to follow it and then trust to the good judgement of the public.

But we must then be honest about the risks. We cannot claim that any new technology is ‘absolutely safe’.

The next generation

I have exhorted young people to be alive to the wonder of science. We have a responsibility to make that possible by providing a first-class science education system.

The recruitment of teachers has been an undoubted problem. In 2004, the Ten-Year Science and Innovation Investment Framework included a range of new policies to stimulate the recruitment of science teachers. The Next Steps programme specifies targets for lessons to be taught by subject specialists.

There is already some progress. Science teacher vacancies are already falling. 7,500 new science teachers were hired in 2005 – 70 per cent more than 1999/2000.

The new science GCSE has been developed with the support of many eminent scientists, including the Royal Society. By engaging more young people with science, it will encourage more to continue science at A-level or through the new specialised Diplomas. At the same time, we are giving a new right to students who gain above average grades in the Key Stage 3 tests at age 14 to study triple science – physics, chemistry and biology individually.

Celebrate science

We need our scientists today to be as celebrated and famous as our sportsmen and women, our actors, our business entrepreneurs. Scientists are ‘stars’ too.