Making Britain a science and research superpower
















Today the Prime Minister is launching a plan to cement the UK’s place as a science and technology superpower by 2030 – backed by £370 million of new funding to foster world leading scientific research that will create well-paid jobs and grow our economy. 

  • That is why today, the government is setting out 10 key actions under a bold new plan – backed by £370 million of investment – to cement our place as a global science and technology superpower by 2030, by pursuing transformational technologies like AI and supercomputing, attracting top talent and boosting private sector investment.
  • The more we innovate, the more we can grow our economy, create the high-paid jobs of the future, protect our security, and improve lives across the country.

I note that there is some concern from the scientific community about the fact that the government has not given a definite commitment to rejoin the EU Horizon scheme for pooling science and research. Nobody should read into this the assumption that Britain will not be rejoining the scheme. Doing so remains "Plan A." 

It is simply that you never go into a  negotiation committing yourself to accept the terms on offer whatever they are, because that completely destroys your negotiating position. But there has been a sea-change in relations between the UK and EU over the past few months: I believe Britain can get a reasonable deal to rejoin Horizon and will accept it.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

Image
I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more